UK PM Appoints James Cleverly As New Interior Minister

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday appointed James Cleverly as interior minister, switching the 54-year-old from the role of foreign secretary which he had held for a year.

The move, part of Sunak’s first major reshuffle after nearly 13 months in power, follows the UK leader sacking Suella Braverman as interior minister earlier Monday.

The PUNCH Online highlights key major things to know about the new UK interior minister as culled from Wikipedia and major UK news platforms.

1. He was born on September 4, 1969, to a British father and a Sierra Leonean mother.

2. He was privately educated at Riverton School and Colfe’s School, both in Lee, London. Cleverly then trained in the army, but his training was cut short by a leg injury in 1989. He went on to gain a Bachelor of Arts degree in hospitality management studies from Ealing College of Higher Education (now University of West London) in 1991.

3. He worked for the publishing company Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen; he joined Informa as an international sales manager in 2002.

4. Cleverly joined Crimson Publishing as an advertising manager after two years before becoming the online commercial manager for Caspian Publishing in 2006.

5. He co-founded the web publishing company Point and Fire the following year.

6. He was an Army Reserve Officer who has served as Home Secretary since 2023.

7. He is an active member of the Conservative Party and served as Secretary of State for Education.

8. He advocated a vote for Brexit in the 2016 European Union membership referendum.

9. In September 2022, he was appointed Foreign Secretary by then-Prime Minister Liz Truss, making him the first Foreign Secretary of African heritage in British history.

10. Cleverly married Susannah Sparks in 2000; the couple have two sons.