Boris Johnson’s cabinet should not be less diverse than the nation it serves

Boris Johnson probably believes that he has appointed the best people for the tasks ahead. His first cabinet, assembled in July, was designed to deliver Brexit. Thus it featured prominent Leavers, Andrea Leadsom, Theresa Villiers and Esther McVey, even though their records as ministers were indifferent.

This week’s new cabinet is intended to focus, in New Labour language, on “delivery”. Mr Johnson recognises the need to improve public services and invest in infrastructure, in ways that will convince those voters who put their trust in the “One Nation” Conservatives for the first time at the election that they were right to do so.

It may be – we put it no more strongly than this – that the prime minister tends to see ministers capable of delivering change in his own image. That may be why his new cabinet is slightly whiter, more male and more privately educated than his first draft. As we report today, two thirds of ministers around the cabinet were privately educated, while the numbers of female and ethnic minority members have both fallen by one.