Steve Baker rejects ministerial role in Boris Johnson's government | Policy

The famous eurosceptic rebel Steve Baker rejected a candidacy for the post of president of Boris Johnson, saying that he did not want to repeat the "helplessness" that he felt as a junior minister before giving up the objections to the transaction of Theresa May.

Baker, the vice president of the European Brexit Research Group and close ally of the young promoted Jacob Rees-Mogg, apparently appeared to propose a Cabinet Office post on Thursday night, but after more than an hour inside Downing Street, he said he had rejected the Prime Minister's offer.

This rejection is the first major drag in Johnson's reshuffle, with the prime minister hoping to keep Baker "in the tent" as one of the Brexiter's top leaders in Parliament.

"With regret, I refused a ministerial post," he tweeted, adding that "the disaster is waiting" if Britain did not leave the European Union before October 31.

Baker had alluded to some frustration with the reshuffle. He told the press that he was "minister in charge of unanswered press requests" and "minister responsible for long waits".

In July, Baker resigned as Brexit Minister with David Davis, then secretary of Brexit, following disagreements over government policy.

Earlier in the evening, Johnson confided ministerial plum roles to some of his closest allies, Kit Malthouse, Conor Burns and Nigel Adams, while eliminating ministers who made it clear that they could not endure a hopeless Brexit.

Ministers dismissed by Johnson on Thursday included Health Minister Stephen Hammond and Minister of Foreign Affairs Harriett Baldwin, two supporters of Johnson's rival Jeremy Hunt.

Hammond had recently resumed his role in the government, after voting against May in 2017 in order to give MPs a meaningful vote on the Brexit deal.

In his tweet of goodbye, Hammond said that he remained "absolutely opposed" to the lack of agreement.

Malthouse, a former colleague of Johnson's City Hall who was eager to get elected to Cabinet, has been entrusted with a more junior role than he would have expected. He will be Minister of Police, a very close record of the Deputy Mayor of the Police during Johnson's tenure at London City Hall.

Burns and Adams, two of Johnson's closest parliamentary friends and allies who were at his side throughout the leadership race, were also promoted to the position of Minister of International Trade and Minister of Culture respectively.

Burns had previously defended Johnson's goal of promoting only MPs who would be sure to support a hopeless Brexit, hinting that he did not want the discipline of May's ministers.

George Eustice, the former fisheries minister who left the government in March because of the proposed 50-clause extension in May, was reinstated in the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.