No “reluctant conscript”, Brexit minister quits in blow to Britain’s May
LONDON, (Reuters) - Brexit Secretary David Davis has resigned because he was not willing to be “a reluctant conscript” to Prime Minister Theresa May’s plans to leave the European Union, delivering a blow to a British leader struggling to end divisions among her ministers.
The late-night resignation was praised by Brexit campaigners in May’s Conservative Party, who felt her plan to press for the closest possible trading ties with the EU had betrayed their desire for a clean break with the bloc.
His resignation seemed to spur others to follow suit, with a source saying that a junior minister in the same department had also quit, just two days after May had held a crisis meeting with ministers to overcome the deep divisions over Brexit.
With nine months before Britain leaves and just over three before the EU says it wants a deal, May has been under intense pressure from the bloc and from many businesses to show her negotiating position.
She thought she had done enough to move on with that fraught process at the meeting at her Chequers country residence. The resignations further complicate that process, and put a question mark over whether she can get the backing of parliament for her Brexit plans and whether there may be a leadership contest.
“The general direction of policy will leave us in at best a weak negotiating position, and possibly an inescapable one,” Davis said in his resignation letter to May.