Boris Johnson resigns in Britain’s latest Brexit blow with the government in chaos

A BRUTAL resignation letter from one of Britain’s most senior politicians has thrown the prime minister and her government into turmoil.

Mr Johnson’s resignation comes at a terrible time for Mrs May, as she tries to keep the peace within her Conservative party. Picture: AFP Photo / Tolga Akmen

“THE dream is dying, suffocated by needless self-doubt.”

That is how Boris Johnson resigned from his position as British foreign secretary in a fresh blow for prime minister Theresa May’s government.

Mr Johnson followed Brexit minister David Davis in resigning over the PM’s masterplan for Britain’s future outside the European Union.

Mrs May has named former health minister Jeremy Hunt as Mr Johnson’s replacement. He is considered one of her most loyal ministers.

Mr Davis and his deputy quit just two days after Mrs May announced she had finally united her quarrelsome government behind a plan for a divorce deal with the EU.

Britain’s most senior official in charge of negotiating Brexit accused Mrs May of undermining it with her plan to keep close trade ties with the bloc, even after Britain leaves in March next year.

Brexit cheerleader Mr Johnson then delivered a second shock when he also marched out, triggering speculation Mrs May could face an imminent leadership contest.

In his resignation letter to Ms May, Mr Johnson said: “Brexit should be about opportunity and hope.

“It should be a chance to do things differently, to be more nimble and dynamic, and to maximise the particular advantages of the UK as an open, outward-looking global economy.”

He said Britain’s negotiations over Brexit could leave it as nothing more than a “colony” of Europe.

“Since I cannot in all conscience champion these proposals, I have sadly concluded that I must go,” he wrote.

The prime minister’s Brexit plan, agreed by the cabinet on Friday in the hope of unblocking negotiations with Brussels due to resume on Monday, has now cost her two of her top four ministers, throwing her administration and authority into turmoil.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has resigned, Downing Street said in a statement on Monday, hours after Brexit minister David Davis stepped down. Picture: AFP Photo / Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS

“This afternoon, the prime minister accepted the resignation of Boris Johnson as foreign secretary,” her Downing Street office said in a short statement. “His replacement will be announced shortly. The prime minister thanks Boris for his work.”

Mr Johnson criticised the Brexit blueprint in private but has so far refrained from public comment.

Downing Street swiftly appointed Eurosceptic housing minister Dominic Raab to Mr Davis’s job, and said Mrs May was looking forward to working with him to deliver Britain’s departure from the EU in March.

The resignation of Mr Davis, with a stinging warning that Britain was “giving too much away too easily” in Brexit talks, was a blow to the British prime minister just days after she declared a truce among her warring ministers.

All eyes are now on the next move by Brexit hardliners in her centre-right Conservative Party.

But the appointment of Mr Raab, a leading Brexit supporter, suggests Tory Brexiteers are divided.

THE BACKLASH

The resignations illustrate a very public backlash against Mrs May as she tries to unite her party behind a plan to retain strong economic ties to the European Union even after leaving the bloc.

Mr Davis told Mrs May in a letter that the government’s proposals for close trade and customs ties “will leave us in at best a weak negotiating position, and possibly an inescapable one”.

Major headache: PM Theresa May. Picture: AFP

It’s understood Mr Davis was humiliated by Mrs May’s insistence last week that Cabinet sign up to a “watered down” Brexit plan developed outside his department.

His departure could see Mrs May’s government teeter closer to a general election.

Mr Davis’s late-night resignation undermined Mrs May’s already fragile government, which has lost several ministers in the past year over sexual misconduct allegations and other scandals.

Mr Davis was a strong pro-Brexit voice 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.

His departure could embolden Brexit-supporting Conservative politicians — who have long considered Mrs May too prone to compromise with the EU — to challenge her leadership.

The staunchly pro-Brexit Conservative politician Andrea Jenkyns tweeted: “Fantastic news. Well done David Davis for having the principle and guts to resign.” Jenkyns said Steve Baker, a junior minister in the Brexit department, had also quit. There was no immediate comment from Mr Baker.

TIME RUNNING OUT

Less than nine months remain until Britain leaves the bloc on March 29, 2019, and the EU has warned Britain repeatedly that time is running out to seal a divorce deal.

On Friday, Mr Davis and the rest of Mrs May’s fractious Cabinet finally agreed on a plan for future trade ties with the EU.

Mrs May is due to brief politicians on Monday on the plan hammered out during a 12-hour meeting at Chequers, the prime minister’s country retreat. It seeks to keep the UK 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.

Some Brexit-supporting politicians are angry at the proposals, saying they will keep Britain tethered to the bloc and unable to change its rules to strike new trade deals around the world.

Shock resignation: Britain’s Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union David Davis has quit. Picture: AP

BREXIT ‘IN NAME ONLY’

In his resignation letter, Mr Davis said: “Common rule book policy hands control of large swathes of our economy to the EU and is certainly not returning control of our laws in any real sense.”

He said he was worried the government’s negotiating approach would “lead to further demands for concessions” from Brussels.

“It seems to me that the national interest requires a secretary of state in my department that is an enthusiastic believer in your approach, and not merely a reluctant conscript,” he wrote.

In a letter to Mr Davis, Mrs May disagreed with his characterisation of her plans, saying the deal she seeks “will undoubtedly mean the returning of powers from Brussels to the United Kingdom”.

Conservative politician Jacob Rees-Mogg, a leader of the party’s “hard Brexit” faction, compared Mrs May’s plan to an egg so softly boiled that it “isn’t boiled at all”.

“A very soft Brexit means that we haven’t left, we are simply a rule-taker,” he said.

The main opposition Labour Party said the government was in “absolute chaos”.

“It is now clearer than ever that Theresa May does not have the authority to negotiate for Britain or deliver a Brexit deal that protects jobs and the economy,” spokesman Keir Starmer said.

Originally published as Boris Johnson resigns in Britain’s latest Brexit blow with the government in chaos