Chief of Britain’s EU-exit talks quits

LONDON — The British official in charge of negotiating the country’s exit from the European Union resigned Sunday, two days after Prime Minister Theresa May announced she had united her government behind a plan for the split.

David Davis told May in a letter that the government’s trade plan with the bloc “will leave us in at best a weak negotiating position, and possibly an inescapable one.”

The late-night resignation by Davis, whose formal title is “secretary of state for exiting the European Union,” was a blow to May’s government, which has already lost several ministers in the past year over sexual misconduct allegations and other scandals. In a Cabinet divided between supporters of a clean break with the bloc and those who want to keep close ties with Britain’s biggest trading partner, Davis was a strong voice in favor of the split, commonly called the Brexit.

Conservative lawmaker Andrea Jenkyns voiced support for Davis on Twitter and added that Steve Baker, a junior minister in the EU exit department, had also quit. There was no immediate comment from Baker.

Less than nine months remain until Britain leaves the bloc on March 29, and the EU has warned Britain repeatedly that time is running out to seal a divorce deal.

May is due to brief lawmakers today on the plan, which seeks to keep the U.K. and the EU in a free-trade zone for goods, and commits Britain to maintaining the same rules as the bloc for goods and agricultural products.