Theresa May’s govt implodes as foreign secretary resigns
LONDON. - British Prime Minister Theresa May’s government imploded yesterday as Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson followed Brexit minister David Davis in resigning over her masterplan for Britain’s future outside the EU.
The prime minister hammered out a compromise with her deeply divided cabinet in an all-day meeting at Chequers last Friday, but after consulting friends and allies, Johnson decided he could not promote the deal.
Pressure on the foreign secretary had been mounting since fellow pro-Brexiter David Davis resigned as Brexit secretary on Sunday night, swiftly followed by his deputy Steve Baker.
A Downing Street spokesman said: “This afternoon, the prime minister accepted the resignation of Boris Johnson as foreign secretary. His replacement will be announced shortly. The prime minister thanks Boris for his work.”
Friends said Johnson had been finalising his resignation letter, but Downing Street announced his departure before he had completed it. After the Chequers summit, it emerged that Johnson had referred to attempts to sell the prime minister’s Brexit plan as being akin to “polishing a turd”.
As the flamboyant public face of the Vote Leave campaign, his departure will deepen the sense of crisis around May, and increase the chances that she could face a vote of no confidence.
One senior Brexiter suggested more resignations could follow if May sticks to her plan for a “common rule book” with Brussels: “They’ll keep going, one by one, until she either junks Chequers or goes.”
Johnson’s resignation was announced yesterday afternoon as Labour MPs were being briefed about the government’s soft Brexit plan by May’s de facto deputy, David Lidington.
Lidington, a potential candidate to succeed Johnson, emerged from the meeting in Westminster apparently unaware of the latest resignation news. May appeared before a packed house of Commons, cheered loudly by Tory MPs as she arrived in the chamber minutes after news of Johnson’s resignation had emerged.
The prime minister acknowledged the resignations of Davis and Johnson at the beginning of her statement on Friday’s Chequers agreement, briefly thanking Davis for steering through the “most important legislation for generations” and Johnson for showing passion in promoting “global Britain to the world”.
The prime minister did not elaborate on the turmoil engulfing her government in detail, saying only that “robust views had been exchanged around the cabinet table, as they have been around the breakfast table”.
She added that she now expected cabinet members to conform to collective responsibility now that a soft Brexit policy had Speaking after May, Corbyn said there was a crisis in the government, accusing her of presiding over “two years of sound-bites, indecision and cabinet infighting” adding that “more and more people (are) losing faith that this government is capable of delivering a good Brexit deal and that is just within her own cabinet.”
Brussels reacted coolly to the news of Johnson’s and Davis’s departures. Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, said their resignations did nothing to “solve the mess caused by Brexit”.
He added in a tweet: “Politicians come and go, but the problems they have created for people remain.
“I can only regret that the idea of Brexit has not left with Davis and Johnson. But . . . who knows,” he wrote, reprising his previously-stated hope that the UK might change its mind on leaving the EU.
May was due to address her backbench MPs in Westminster after her Commons statement.
If 48 MPs write letters of no confidence to the chair of the backbench 1922 Committee, Graham Brady, May will face a vote of no confidence. - The Guardian.