The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Government in disarray
Johnson resigns with ‘colony’ jibe May vows to fight on as Prime Minister She survives showdown with MPs
Boris Johnson fired a scathing parting shot at Theresa May in a resignation that left her government on the brink of collapse.
The departing foreign secretary told the prime minister her “needless selfdoubt” has left the “Brexit dream dying”.
The Conservative leader’s new plan for leaving the EU means we are “truly headed for the status of colony”, Mr Johnson added in the resignation letter.
His departure yesterday afternoon came less than 24 hours after David Davis quit as Brexit secretary in one of Mrs May’s darkest days as PM.
Both “big beasts” in the Conservative government stood down in protest at her new Brexit proposals, which advocated a closer relationship with the bloc than previously put forward.
The meltdown at the top of the UK Government has raised the prospect of a leadership contest, with dozens of MPs considering whether to push for a vote of no confidence.
In tempestuous scenes in the Commons, Mrs May was accused of stitching up Leave voters with her fresh negotiating position.
She said: “This is not a betrayal. We will end free movement, we will end the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, we will stop sending vast sums of money to the European Union every year, we will come out of the Common Agricultural Policy, we will come out of the Common Fisheries Policy.
“I believe that is what people voted for when they voted to leave and we will deliver in faith to the British people.”
In his resignation letter, Mr Johnson said Brexit should be about being “nimble and dynamic” and becoming an “outward-looking global economy”.
He said: “That dream is dying, suffocated by needless self-doubt.”
Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, said the UK Government is in “crisis”.
He added: “It is clear this government cannot secure a good deal for Britain.”
Mrs May last night tried to save her premiership by convincing her MPs to support her plan, which she said had achieved cabinet consensus at the Chequers summit last week.
Reports from a meeting of the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers suggested there will be no immediate moves on Mrs May’s leadership. Luke Graham, the Perthshire MP who was finance director at Britain Stronger In Europe, said it was a “robust meeting” with “strained voices” from Brexiteers.
Although one attendee reported the gathering, which ended in applause for Mrs May, was “genuinely very good”, others were less enthusiastic.
Asked about the acclaim the prime minister received at the meeting, another person present said: “Not everyone was applauding.”
And last night a beleaguered Mrs May reshuffled her cabinet pack, appointing Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt as her new foreign secretary.
Relative unknown Matt Hancock is preomoted from culture to health, and Geoffrey Cox is the new Attorney General, replacing Jeremy Wright who is the new culture secretary.
The Chequers stance includes being tied to the European single market for goods under a “common rule book” and close customs arrangements as part of a new UK-EU free trade area, which Eurosceptics say falls short of leaving the bloc.
Former Housing Minister Dominic Raab, who is staunchly anti-EU, will be in charge of selling those proposals to Brussels as the new Brexit Secretary.
The two most senior Conservatives in Scotland came out in support of Mrs May. Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said UK ministers who cannot back the PM’s Brexit vision should quit.
Scottish Secretary David Mundell urged cabinet colleagues and the rest of the country to “get behind” Mrs May.
The SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford said the UK Government is now “paralysed in its own Brexit chaos”. He said Mr Johnson should have been sacked months ago for “being a national embarrassment”.
Mrs May suffered another resignation last night when Chris Green, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling’s PPS, quit saying the Chequers summit “confirmed my fears” the UK would “not really leave the EU”.