Theresa May appoints Rupert Murdoch to government in cabinet reshuffle

Rupert Murdoch


Support us and go ad-free

Theresa May completed her first major cabinet reshuffle on Monday 8 January, inviting several big names into government. In a controversial move, the Prime Minister appointed media mogul Rupert Murdoch to the new post of Overlord-in-Chief.

Dial M for Murdoch

In his role as co-chair of News Corp and 21st Century Fox, Murdoch oversees a number of prominent news outlets. These include The Sun, The Times, and Fox News. But from 8 January 2018, Rupert Murdoch also became Overlord-in-Chief of the UK government. Announcing the appointment, Murdoch said:

I look forward to dealing with a number of emerging challenges facing the country. Not least Brexit. Frankly, it is time to set aside the monkey, and allow the organ grinder to get on with things.

The 86-year-old tycoon will take responsibility for most (if not all) prime ministerial duties: leading press conferences, attending international summits, developing domestic and foreign policy, appointing and removing cabinet ministers, and selecting a successor for Theresa May. Some commentators expressed alarm at the unprecedented powers Theresa May has granted Murdoch. Law and Politics Professor Ina Ephraim of Oxford University told Off The Perch:

This is unprecedented. In effect, Rupert Murdoch has been made Prime Minister by appointment. Theresa May has handed complete authority to an unelected representative of a foreign state.

But the Conservative Party argued otherwise. Responding to the comments from Ephraim, a spokesperson for Theresa May stated:

This scaremongering has to stop. Rupert Murdoch will have only those powers which Theresa May agrees to grant him. That’s democracy.

Read on...

Members of the public openly expressed disagreement with the government’s line.

The cavalry

Murdoch was not the only unelected person parachuted into the May government on reshuffle day. Several other appointments have provoked concerns about cronyism:

  • Tony Blair was appointed International Peace Tsar.
  • Harvey Weinstein was appointed to lead the Westminster Sexual Misconduct Inquiry.
  • Steve Bannon, fired by US President Donald Trump in August 2017, was appointed as Communications Chief.
  • Norman Tebbit will return to government to lead Theresa May’s much-lauded Race Relations Programme.
  • And Katie Hopkins will be manning the newly-installed anti-immigrant gunboats at Dover.

May’s spokesperson concluded: “The new government will be one of the oldest, whitest and malest since Nancy Astor became the first woman to sit in parliament in 1919. And we think that’s what the Tory membership wants.”

Get Involved!

– For more satirical news, you can also follow Off The Perch on Facebook and Twitter.

Featured image via Wikipedia/Defence Images (Flickr Creative Commons)

We know everyone is suffering under the Tories - but the Canary is a vital weapon in our fight back, and we need your support

The Canary Workers’ Co-op knows life is hard. The Tories are waging a class war against us we’re all having to fight. But like trade unions and community organising, truly independent working-class media is a vital weapon in our armoury.

The Canary doesn’t have the budget of the corporate media. In fact, our income is over 1,000 times less than the Guardian’s. What we do have is a radical agenda that disrupts power and amplifies marginalised communities. But we can only do this with our readers’ support.

So please, help us continue to spread messages of resistance and hope. Even the smallest donation would mean the world to us.

Support us

Comments are closed