Boris Johnson and David Davis. Photo courtesy of The Daily Express.
Summary: In protest of British Prime Minister Theresa May, three Brexit leaders resigned this week.
Recently, two senior cabinet ministers quit over British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit strategy, and a third leader also resigned. According to CNN, “The Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, quit on Monday, hours after the resignation late on Sunday night of the minister in charge of Brexit negotiations, David Davis. A third member of the government, Steve Baker, a junior minister in Davis’ Department for Exiting the European Union, also resigned.”
Three days ago, May agreed to a deal on the UK’s relationship with the European Union after the country breaks from it. On Monday, May appeared in Parliament to defend her plan and acknowledge that Johnson and Davis had resigned.
Johnson had resigned before May spoke in Parliament, and CNN said that this resignation hurt her politically because of his seniority in the government and his crucial role during the Leave campaign.
“This afternoon, the Prime Minister accepted the resignation of Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary,” a statement from May’s office stated. “His replacement will be announced shortly. The Prime Minister thanks Boris for his work.”
Around the same time, Davis, who had been leading the Brexit negotiations, said that he did not support May’s Brexit plan either. He said that in May’s plan the UK post-Brexit would still have a close relationship with the EU, which gave the illusion that the UK was independent but was actually not true.
Davis told the BBC that he was no longer the best person for his role because he did not “believe” in where the deal was going. He acknowledged that his resignation could be “career-ending” but he felt that May was giving away too much in the deal and too easily.
May’s political opponents were quick to pounce on her troubles following the resignations.
“This mess is all of the Prime Ministers own making,” opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said. “Two secretaries of state have resigned and still we are no clearer as to what our future relationship with our nearest neighbors and biggest trading partners will be.”
Brexit is scheduled for March 29, 2019, but so far, the UK and the European Union have not finalized how trade will work between the two parties.