UK PM expected to reshuffle govt

LONDON  - Prime Minister David Cameron was expected to reshuffle his government this week as British lawmakers returned to work Monday following their summer break. During the parliamentary holiday, Cameron has faced unrest from within his own centre-right Conservative Party, with one former minister asking whether he was “man or mouse”. It will be the first proper reshuffle of Cameron’s government since the May 2010 general election that brought him to office. The Conservatives are in coalition with the centrist Liberal Democrats, led by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who has faced questions from within his own party about his leadership.

Writing in The Mail on Sunday newspaper, Cameron vowed to “cut through the dither” and breathe new life into the nation’s recession-mired economy with a series of new initiatives in this parliamentary term.

He also pledged that he would continue reining in Britain’s deficit amid the ongoing eurozone sovereign debt crisis.

Cameron’s official spokesman refused to comment on the timing or content of the reshuffle, widely commented on in newspapers Monday and expected to involve cabinet members as well as junior ministers.

Reports suggested that high-ranking ministers such as Clegg, finance minister George Osborne or Foreign Secretary William Hague were safe in their posts.

A YouGov poll in The Sunday Times newspaper put support for the Conservatives at 35 percent, centre-left Labour at 41 percent, the Liberal Democrats at nine percent and other parties at 14 percent.

Some 60 percent thought Cameron was doing badly as prime minister, while 67 percent thought the coalition was working together badly. YouGov sampled 1,739 people on Thursday and Friday for the poll.