DAVIS: MAY’S GONE TOO FAR WITH PLAN
DAVID Davis yesterday accused Theresa May of giving ‘too much away too easily’ to Brussels.
As Mrs May appointed Eurosceptic Dominic Raab to replace him as Brexit Secretary, Mr Davis warned the Chequers plan agreed by the Cabinet ‘would not deliver a proper Brexit’.
However, he insisted that he thought Mrs May would survive the ensuing crisis.
Talking to BBC Radio 4 after his midnight resignation, Mr Davis said: ‘We are giving too much away too easily and that’s a dangerous strategy at this time. Hopefully we will resist very strongly any attempt to get any further concessions from us, because I think this goes further than we should have gone already.’
Describing the plan as flawed, he said it would ‘not have been plausible’ for him to be ‘front and centre in delivering’ it but insisted he believed Mrs May was a ‘good prime minister’. Asked if she could survive, he said: ‘Oh yes, of course.’
In his resignation letter, he said the Brexit Secretary role should go to an ‘enthusiastic believer in your approach, and not merely a reluctant conscript’.
He warned the Chequers plan ‘hands control of large swathes of our economy to the EU and is certainly not returning control of our laws in any real sense’.
His successor Mr Raab last night declared he would use the role to focus on the benefits of leaving the EU. Mr Rabb previously served in more junior ministerial posts in the housing and justice departments.