‘Big beasts’ just the latest to quit Cabinet
PRIME Minister Theresa May has faced a series of Cabinet members leaving their positions since the snap election last June.
The first to leave was defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon, who resigned his post after being caught up in Westminster sleaze allegations.
He said his behaviour had “fallen below the high standards required” after he admitted putting his hand on the knee of radio presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer some years ago, when he resigned on November 1.
One week later, Priti Patel quit as international development secretary over undisclosed and unauthorised meetings in Israel, including with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The following month, Ms May’s deputy Damian Green left the Cabinet after a probe found he made “inaccurate and misleading” statements about pornography on his computer.
Justine Greening was sacked in the PM’s reshuffle in January after refusing to move from her education post to the Department for Work and Pensions.
Home secretary Amber Rudd resigned in April after admitting she had “inadvertently” misled MPs over the existence of targets for removing illegal immigrants over the Windrush scandal.
Brexit secretary David Davis quit on Sunday following talks at Chequers, saying the agreed trade position for the white paper meant “we are giving too much away too easily”.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson became the latest senior figure to quit and the second Cabinet “big beast” to go in little more than 12 hours when he resigned yesterday.