Davis, 67, was given the newly-created role of Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union by incoming British Prime Minister Theresa May as she set about building her team just hours after taking over from David Cameron.
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Speaking to LBC radio, he said Britain would likely come out of the single market as a result of its decision to leave the European Union, and hoped Britain would be able to negotiate “access” to the market through trade deals.
Leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, remained sitting down while clapping quietly.
“This morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others”.
Theresa May began forming her new cabinet shortly after her arrival into 10 Downing Street.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve our country as prime minister over these last six years, and to serve as leader of my party for nearly 11 years”, he said, accompanied by his wife Samantha and his children – 12-year-old Nancy, 10-year-old Elwen and 5-year-old Florence. “Florence, you once tried to climb into one of them, and said, ‘Take me with you.’ From now on, no more boxes”. Mr Cameron remarked that apart from a visit to Buckingham Palace to officially tender his resignation to the Queen, his diary was looking “remarkably light”.
Chris Hollis (right) used Prime Minister David Cameron’s humming outside 10 Downing Street for inspiration.
“It has been the greatest honour of my life to serve our country as prime minister over these last six years and to serve as leader of my party for nearly 11 years”, he said. It was a gamble he lost when Britain voted to leave.
The 59-year-old, who has been Cameron’s interior minister for the past six years, had officially backed her boss’s campaign to stay in the EU. “I will miss the barbs from the opposition”, Cameron said, promising to watch future exchanges as a regular Conservative lawmaker on the back benches. When we pass new laws we will listen not to the mighty, but to you.
German Chancellor Merkel will be May’s most important counterpart on the continent as the process unfolds.
Although she favoured Britain remaining in Europe, May has repeatedly declared that “Brexit means Brexit” and that there can be no attempt to reverse the referendum outcome.
In a controversial passage, in the wake of austerity cuts and just days before next week’s Trident vote, he said his government had strengthened the UK’s defences “with submarines, destroyers and frigates, and soon, aircraft carriers rolling out of our shipyards to keep our country safe in a risky world”.
Now all eyes will turn to the composition of her cabinet.
Friends of former London mayor Boris Johnson, who had been hotly tipped to succeed Cameron but declined to run at the last minute, said he was also hoping to play a “significant role”. The two Conservatives headed the “leave” campaign but then turned on one another in the leadership contest.
Financial markets, which had been extremely volatile since the referendum, reacted positively to news on Monday that May would become prime minister earlier than expected, with sterling making strong gains against the dollar and the euro.
The vote to leave the European Union roiled global stock markets and sent the pound to a 31-year low in the immediate aftermath.
She will meet with the other EU 27 leaders at the European Council summit on 21-22 October.
Both agreed that “friendly ties between the two countries should continue, including in the upcoming negotiations on Britain’s departure from the EU”, he added. To laughter, Cameron recalled that Clarke’s first act on becoming finance minister was to sack him as a Treasury special advisor.
Acknowledging the struggles faced by many people, May declared: “The government I lead will be driven not be the interests of the privileged few, but by yours”.
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“There is a streak that we all saw which was to be really quite narrow in focus and reluctant to shift even when the facts seemed to be changing, and if that’s what happens when she’s prime minister we could find ourselves in difficulties”, Cable told BBC television.
