JO JOHNSON SPARKS PANIC
BRITISH prime minister TheresaMay was on alert for fresh Government resignations in the wake of transport minister Jo Johnson’s shock resignation on Friday over her ‘deeply flawed’ negotiations.
Mr Johnson, brother of Boris Johnson, said yesterday that other ministers were ‘reflecting hard’ on their position;
Allies of the prime minister said that the chance of the cabinet giving approval for a draft deal in the next 48 hours was ‘receding fast’, potentially delaying the crunch House of Commons vote on the Brexit deal until next year.
Jo Johnson, who backed the Remain campaign in the referendum, yesterday called once again for another referendum, arguing that what was being offered fell ‘spectacularly short’ of what had been promised.
Mr Johnson said the UK faced a choice between ‘vassalage’ under Mrs May’s proposals to stay within the Customs Union until a new trade deal had been negotiated and ‘chaos’ if it left the EU without a deal.
Anti-May MPs told colleagues to redouble their efforts to force her to quit by submitting letters of no confidence in her leadership.
Under its latest timetable, No.10 Downing Street had hoped to reach an agreement with the EU by the end of last week, to allow it to be put before the cabinet by Tuesday.