“What we have now is what the majority of people are looking for which is a sensible soft Brexit whereby the trading relationship between Britain and the European Union is one that is as positive and seamless as we can make it”.
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His dramatic resignation followed those of Davis and his deputy Steve Banker overnight over May’s plans to keep Britain economically close to the bloc.
Ministers agreed to pursue a soft Brexit plan at the meeting, even though Boris Johnson described May’s Brexit proposals as “polishing a turd”.
“His replacement will be announced shortly”.
A minister quoted the prime minister as saying, “If we don’t pull together, we risk the election of Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister”, The Guardian reported.
“This is the right approach – for both the United Kingdom and for the EU”.
Al Jazeera’s Laurence Lee, reporting from London, said Johnson’s departure left the British government in crisis mode.
He said: “My constituency is a very big Leave constituency, I’ve had a very small number of emails making a comment about this deal”.
British Prime Minister Theresa May will publish details Thursday of her long-awaited Brexit plan to restart talks with the European Union, after facing down a revolt by eurosceptic ministers that could still unseat her. “I’m not sure. That’s not on the schedule, but the president makes his own schedule”.
In the pro-Conservative Spectator magazine, Brendan O’Neill wrote that there had been “a Remainer coup” – a reference to Johnson’s replacement Jeremy Hunt, who also supported staying in the European Union but says he has now changed his mind.
The Chequers policy, which secured Cabinet agreement last week before sparking senior resignations, includes being tied to the European single market for goods under a “common rule book” and close customs arrangements as part of a new UK-EU free trade area.
Mr Davis, who has been Brexit Secretary since Mrs May became prime minister in 2016, said he had made compromises since taking on the role, but this was “one compromise too far”. But Davis’s resignation has plunged the party into chaos once more, and it is now odds-on (4/7) that May will have to defend her position as leader this year.
In her resignation letter, Caulfield warned that May’s policy “may assuage vested interests, but the voters will find out and their representatives will be found out”.
Hard-line backbencher Andrew Bridgen sent a letter of no confidence in Mrs May to the chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady.
But she told MPs: “We do not agree on the best way to deliver our shared commitments to honour the result of the referendum”.
Mr Raab, May’s new Brexit minister, will suggest that such criticism was not justified.
Any leadership contest would also come from the Eurosceptic win of the Party, looking towards a Hard Brexit, whilst May and Raab negotiate for a deal with plenty of links to Europe.
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“If anyone in the Conservative Party is then thinking about voting that down, that is the point at which they are going to endanger everything they have been trying to achieve”.
