Theresa May's troubled Cabinet lurches from one controversy to another: List of ministers who have courted trouble

In June, British prime minister Theresa May was on firm political ground. It had been only two years since her Conservative Party claimed a win in Parliament under her predecessor David Cameron, and the next elections weren’t due until 2020. But a decision to call early elections, purportedly to strengthen her hand ahead of the summer’s Brexit negotiations with the European Union, proved decisive. “If we do not hold a general election now, their political game-playing will continue. May said in  her address to the country. “And the negotiations with the European Union will reach their most difficult stage in the run-up to the next scheduled election.” [caption id=“attachment_4271313” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Theresa May. AP[/caption] Her Conservative Party suffered badly in the election, winning only 318 out of 650 seats, short of the simple majority mark of 325. She needed to stitch up an alliance with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), a Far Right party from Northern Ireland. The six months since have been anything but comfortable for May. Her government has lurched from one disaster to another, while her Cabinet rank ministers have been courting controversies and living dangerously. Here’s a look at all the Cabinet-rank ministers who have dragged the British government through troubled waters: Boris Johnson: Foreign Secretary Johnson has never been known for tact, and many were surprised when May made him Britain’s top diplomat. Now he stands accused of endangering a British-Iranian woman imprisoned in Iran with his loose talk. The husband and employer of Nazarin Zaghari-Ratcliffe — serving a five-year sentence for plotting the “soft toppling” of Iran’s government — say she could face more prison time after Johnson told lawmakers last week that she had been training Iranian journalists before she was arrested last year. Husband Richard Ratcliffe and the Thomson Reuters Foundation say Zaghari-Ratcliffe was on vacation visiting family. They say Johnson’s statement was seized on by Iranian authorities as evidence she was engaged in propaganda against the regime. Johnson was forced to accept that “my remarks could have been clearer”. “The UK government has no doubt that she was on holiday in Iran when she was arrested last year and that was the sole purpose of her visit,” he told lawmakers in a contrite statement to the House of Commons. Priti Patel: The international development secretary Priti Patel quit in November following accusations that she held unauthorised meetings with Israeli politicians, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It was later revealed she held 12 secret meetings in all and hadn’t told May or her colleagues about them. In her resignation letter, Patel said her conduct “fell below the high standards that are expected of a secretary of state”. When news broke about the trip, Patel insisted that “Johnson knew about the visit.” Her department was later forced to clarify the statement, saying “the foreign secretary did become aware of the visit, but not in advance of it.” Patel said earlier that her meetings in Israel — arranged by Stuart Polak, honorary president of the group Conservative Friends of Israel — stemmed from her “enthusiasm to engage”. But critics accused her of breaching ministers’ code of conduct and making a major diplomatic gaffe in a region of high political sensitivity. Michael Fallon: Defence Secretary Michael Fallon was also forced to resign saying his past behaviour “may have fallen below the high standards” expected. A female journalist had accused him of repeatedly touching her knee at a function in 2002; another said he had given her an unexpected and unwelcome kiss. Fallon, one of May’s stalwart lieutenants, was often deployed to speak for the government in broadcast interviews. His resignation was a blow to May — made worse when she upset many Conservative lawmakers by replacing him with the widely mistrusted Gavin Williamson, a disciplinarian chief party whip famous for keeping a pet tarantula on his desk. “A number of allegations have surfaced about MPs in recent days, including some of my previous conduct. Many of these have been false, but I accept in the past I have fallen below the high standards that we require of the armed forces that I have the honour to represent,” Fallon said in his resignation letter to May. Damian Green: Green, who was the first secretary of state in the UK Cabinet and was effectively the deputy prime minister. He was forced to step down after an investigation found that he had breached the ministerial code. Green, 61, stepped down after a parliamentary investigation found he had breached the ministerial code of conduct by making “inaccurate and misleading” statements about what he knew about claims that pornography had been found on a computer in his House of Commons office in 2008. “I apologise that my statements were misleading on this point,” he said in his resignation letter. In her response, May expressed “deep regret” at his departure. Green, who had been under investigation regarding allegations of inappropriate conduct, had previously denied suggestions that he made unwanted advances to a female journalist, Kate Maltby, in 2015 and viewed pornography on a computer in his Commons office in 2008. An official report by the UK Cabinet Office found that statements he had made about being unaware pornographic material had been found on his computer were “inaccurate and misleading” and as such fell short of the ministerial code. With inputs from agencies