‘The Brexit dream is dying’
Johnson quits Cabinet with warning that UK is heading for ‘colony’ status PM prepares for leadership challenge as resignations deal blow to her authority Eurosceptics’ fury as May’s Cabinet reshuffle tips balance in favour of Remain
BORIS JOHNSON last night accused Theresa May of killing Brexit as he resigned and plunged the Prime Minister’s leadership into crisis.
The ex-foreign secretary told Mrs May the Brexit “dream is dying, suffocated by self-doubt” and accused her of raising the “white flag” of surrender to the EU.
Under Mrs May’s Brexit plan, Mr Johnson predicted that “we are truly headed for the status of a colony”.
Mr Johnson’s departure, which came less than 24 hours after David Davis and Steve Baker quit the Brexit department, was the most dramatic ministerial resignation since Geoffrey Howe quit as deputy prime minister in 1990, triggering the downfall of Margaret Thatcher.
It inflicted a brutal blow to the authority of the Prime Minister, who last night insisted she would stay and fight for reelection should MPS force a no-confidence vote. Downing Street said she believed she would win.
Mrs May told Mr Johnson she was “sorry, and a little surprised” by his departure, “after the productive discussions we had at Chequers on Friday”.
But she added that “it is right that you should step down” if he could not support her Brexit deal.
She replaced him as foreign secretary with Jeremy Hunt.
The resignations acted as a rallying call to Brexiteers who have vowed to do whatever it takes to kill off the Chequers agreement on Brexit. Sources in the European Research Group of Eurosceptic Tory MPS claimed they had other ministers “lined up” to resign one by one until Mrs May was forced to tear up her plans.
Last night, after Mrs May appealed directly to her MPS to back her, two more members of the Government resigned over the Brexit deal.
Conor Burns, parliamentary private secretary to Mr Johnson, quit, saying: “I want to see the referendum result respected.” Chris Green, a parliamentary private secretary at the Department for Transport, also resigned, saying the Chequers deal confirmed his fears that “we would not really leave the EU”.
Later in the evening Mr Baker deliv- ered an address to 60 ERG MPS, including chairman Jacob Rees-mogg, that was met with applause.
The group gave them until the end of next week when the House of Commons breaks for the summer recess to sink the Chequers plan. The Brexit White Paper will now be published next week.
Other MPS were poised to submit letters to the chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee expressing a lack of confidence in the Prime Minister.
A no-confidence vote is triggered if 48 letters are received.
An ERG member said MPS were holding back from tabling a motion of no confidence in the Prime Minister, adding: “We could get 48 letters in two minutes – but Number 10 have got their numbers.”
Even if Mrs May survives as Prime Minister, her chances of getting her Brexit deal through Parliament were diminishing by the hour as more and more Conservative MPS voiced their opposition, and Labour said it would not sup- port the plan. On one of the most dramatic and chaotic days of her premiership, Mrs May was accused of “betraying Brexit” during a tense meeting with her backbenchers, having already spent almost two hours fending off hostile questions in the Commons.
Mr Rees-mogg, chairman of the ERG, said Mrs May had given him “no reassurance” about the Chequers deal and warned her of “a split coming from the top” if she tried to get the plan through Parliament by relying on Labour votes. The Brexit-backing Tory MP Philip Davies accused Mrs May of orchestrating a “Remainer coup” at Chequers. However, other Tory MPS banged desks in support of the Prime Minister and urged colleagues not to fight her.
Mrs May was unapologetic about her decision to pursue a controversial Brexit plan, telling her MPS: “To lead is to decide.” She had earlier told the Commons that her Brexit plan was “not a betrayal” and the she would deliver on her manifesto pledge to “take back control” of money, laws and borders. Writing in today’s Daily Telegraph, the Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns says she would be prepared to write one of the letters that could trigger a no-confidence vote, because “I can’t honestly say this is a good deal for the UK”. She adds: “The Prime Minister’s team need to be aware that back-bench MPS won’t sit idly by and allow a so-called ‘soft Brexit’ with us being half-in, half-out.”
Less than 72 hours after Mrs May appeared to have united her Cabinet around a Brexit blueprint, her plans were unravelling in front of her eyes, with Mr Johnson’s resignation letter providing the most damning criticism.
Mr Johnson spent hours holed up in his grace and favour London home with his closest advisers before informing the PM by telephone of his decision to quit.
Downing Street stole his thunder by announcing his resignation before he had a chance to get the news out, and in retaliation he leaked his resignation letter to the media rather than waiting for No10 to release it with the Prime Minister’s response.
Mr Johnson said the Prime Minister’s Chequers plan, which he had previously described to her as “a big turd”, was “undeliverable”. He said: “Since I cannot in all conscience champion these proposals, I have sadly concluded that I must go.” Accusing Mrs May of steering Britain towards “semi-brexit”, he said: “It is as though we are sending our vanguard into battle with the white flags fluttering above them.” Brexit, he said, was supposed to be about opportunity and hope, but thanks to Mrs May: “That dream is dying, suffocated by needless selfdoubt.” He said the Government had “gone backwards” by offering the EU major concessions on free movement, regulatory divergence, customs and trade, but he feared “further concessions on immigration” or agreeing to pay for access to the single market.
Mr Johnson expressed particular frustration that in maintaining a “common rule book” with the EU, Britain would not be able to pass laws to protect people, such as cyclists from being killed by lorries. He had campaigned for lorry cabs to have deeper windows so drivers could see cyclists and avoid them, but EU regulations prevented it.
While several Leave-supporting Cabinet ministers including Michael Gove, Chris Grayling and Andrea Leadsom have publicly backed the Chequers agreement, Esther Mcvey, the Work and Pensions Secretary, and Penny Mordaunt, the International Development Secretary, have yet to make any public comment on it. Sources close to both ministers insisted last night that they would not be resigning.
The resignations forced Mrs May into a reshuffle, with Dominic Raab promoted to Brexit Secretary from housing minister. Mr Hunt was replaced as Health Secretary by Matt Hancock, whose role as Culture Secretary
‘I resigned because this was central. I’d have to be the champion of the policy that I didn’t believe in’
was in turn filled by Jeremy Wright, previously the Attorney General. Geoffrey Cox took Mr Wright’s job.
Mr Davis told LBC radio that he and Mr Johnson had not coordinated their resignations, and expressed “regret” that Mr Johnson had quit.
He said: “I had resigned because this was central. I’d have to be the champion of the policy which I didn’t believe in, so that doesn’t work.”
The former Brexit secretary said he did not expect Mrs May to be forced out, saying “I don’t think it’s a survival issue at all”, and predicted that if there was a confidence vote in her, “I suspect she’ll win it”. He even suggested his resignation had strengthened Mrs May’s hand by showing the EU that she had made sacrifices and suffered the consequences, and that she could not afford to give more ground. Mr Davis has, however, made it clear he will be a vocal opponent of the Prime Minister’s deal from the back benches. He said: “My first speech in the Commons will probably be on the customs union and trade Bill next week.”
Mrs May’s predicament was openly mocked in Brussels. Jean-claude Juncker, the European Commission President, said the day’s events “clearly prove that at Chequers there was a big unity of views in the British Cabinet”.
Donald Tusk, the European Council President, said: “I can only regret that the idea of Brexit has not left with Davis and Johnson. But… who knows?”
Nigel Farage, the former leader of Ukip, said last night that he was ready to return as the party’s leader if the Brexit process was not “back on track” by March next year. He called on Conservative MPS to send confidence letters to oust the “appalling” Mrs May.