UK's May to rejig cabinet on Monday

LONDON - 7 January 2018: British Prime Minister Theresa May will announce changes to her ministerial cabinet on Monday but her foreign, finance, interior and Brexit ministers will keep their jobs, the Sunday Times newspaper reported.

The Sunday Times said the reshuffle was aimed at bringing younger women and non-white lawmakers into the cabinet in attempt to appeal to voters who dealt May a setback in an election last year.

May is also expected to announce a new first secretary of state, effectively her number two, after long-standing ally Damian Green was forced to resign from the post last month, the newspaper said.

May, who became prime minister shortly after the Brexit vote in mid-2016, has been widely expected to rejig her ministerial team after a damaging 2017 when she called a snap election only to lose her parliamentary majority.

May's Conservative Party is running neck and neck with the left-wing Labour Party in opinion polls and has been split by differences about what kind of relationship Britain should seek with the European Union after it leaves the bloc in 2019.

The foreign, finance, interior and Brexit ministries are run by Boris Johnson, Philip Hammond, Amber Rudd and David Davis.

The Sunday Times said the ministers who were expected to lose their jobs or move to different roles included Conservative Party chairman Patrick McLoughlin, education minister Justine Greening, business minister Greg Clark and Andrea Leadsom, the government's leader in the lower house of parliament.