Boris Johnson Really Has Seized Control Now

Sajid Javid’s resignation as Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer doesn’t so much signal a major shift in Britain’s economic policy as confirm a sea change in the rules of British politics under Boris Johnson’s administration. That could be just as consequential.

With the country’s first post-Brexit budget due in less than a month and major trade decisions underway, this would seem an odd time to put the country’s budget in a new pair of hands. It certainly wasn’t expected. While there was talk of a “Valentine’s Day massacre” for some weeks after the election, the chancellor’s job wasn’t one of those slated to change in this reshuffle; indeed he was the only cabinet minister whom Johnson had publicly promised would keep his job.