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By Thomas Penny, Kitty Donaldson, Robert Hutton and Tim Ross, Bloomberg
Prime Minister Theresa May battled to stave off a full-blown crisis
after three ministers quit within 24 hours to protest her Brexit plan.
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resignation of Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, the face of the
campaign to leave the European Union in 2016, compounded the chaos in
government following the departures of Brexit Secretary David Davis and
his deputy late Sunday. May’s statement to Parliament on Brexit, which
was meant to crown a rare compromise deal reached with her divided
Cabinet on Friday, was turned into a two-hour defense of her policy of
seeking a softer divorce from the EU.
But the immediate danger
appeared to have receded as pro-Brexit lawmakers held back from calling
May to go, emphasizing instead the need for a new policy. Graham Brady,
head of the Conservative Party committee that handles the procedures for
leadership challenges, also indicated he hadn’t received enough
signatures to trigger a confidence vote in the prime minister.
“If
the threshold were to be reached, at some point it would be incumbent
on me to make arrangements for a vote of confidence,” Brady told
Bloomberg. “People would know fairly quickly.”
@BorisJohnson. Now can we please get rid of the appalling @theresa_may and get Brexit back on track.
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) July 9, 2018
May
maintained the balance of Leavers and Remainers in her Cabinet by
appointing Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to replace Johnson as foreign
secretary, after earlier picking Brexiter Dominic Raab to replace Davis.
Hunt campaigned to stay in the EU but has since changed his mind and
says he would back ‘Leave’ if the referendum were held now.
Challenge
In
the House of Commons, May twice batted away the question of whether she
would fight a leadership challenge, and denied her Brexit proposal --
which she said would protect the economy -- was a betrayal of the
referendum result.
“Nice try, but I’m getting on with delivering
what the British people want,” she said. Minutes later, she was asked if
she expected more resignations. “There is only one interest in jobs
that this government has, and that’s the jobs of the people of this
country and ensuring prosperity,” she said.
High-profile
resignations can unleash leadership challenges, and the fact that
Johnson -- or those around him -- made sure his resignation statement
came out in time for the evening news and before it was issued in the
traditional way by May’s office, hints at his continued interest in
becoming prime minister.
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Johnson’s
resignation letter amounted to a savage attack on May’s record,
accusing her government of postponing “crucial decisions” and not doing
enough to prepare for a potential “no-deal” departure from the EU.
‘Self-Doubt’
“The
dream is dying, suffocated by needless self-doubt,” Johnson wrote. “It
is as though we are sending our vanguard into battle with the white
flags fluttering above them.”
May responded in kind, saying that she was “surprised” that he had reneged on the Cabinet agreement.
“If
you are not able to provide the support we need to secure this deal in
the interests of the United Kingdom, it is right that you should step
down,” May wrote in her reply. “The agreement we reached requires the
full, collective support of Her Majesty’s government.”
Straight
after her Commons appearance, May went to a packed meeting of
rank-and-file Tory lawmakers, where she spoke and took questions for an
hour about her plan. There were some voices of dissent during the
gathering, one lawmaker said as he left the room, though the end was
marked by loud cheers.
Clear Conscience
Geoffrey Cox, who
campaigned to leave the EU, said he can offer May’s proposals to voters
with a clear conscience. “This deal does represent a giant step out of
the EU,” he said after the meeting. “If I didn’t think so, I wouldn’t
support it.”
But Jacob-Rees Mogg, chairman of the pro-Brexit
European Research Group, warned that May would split her party if she
relies on opposition Labour votes to get her plan through Parliament.
The premier’s team briefed Labour Party lawmakers on Monday in an
apparent effort to try to count on their support if her own side lets
her down.
“That would be the most divisive thing the government
could do and it would be a split coming from the top,” Rees-Mogg told
reporters outside the meeting. May’s statement in the Commons “gave me
no reassurance at all,” he added.
Rees-Mogg’s group met later Monday to decide on their strategy.
Just
on Friday, May announced she had secured the backing of her whole
Cabinet for her Brexit proposal and told ministers to either back it or
resign. It was a rare consensus, following talks at her Chequers country
retreat about the way forward -- a move meant to kick-start talks with
the EU that have been stalled for months.
Ministers signed off on a
blueprint for a new U.K.-EU “free trade area,” with interwoven customs
regimes, and identical regulations for industrial and agri-food goods.
Critics in May’s Conservative Party said the plan would bind Britain to
EU rules and prevent it from signing trade deals with countries outside
the bloc.
(Updates with Hunt appointment in fifth paragraph.)
--With assistance from Alex Morales and Jessica Shankleman.
To
contact the reporters on this story: Thomas Penny in London at
tpenny@bloomberg.net;Kitty Donaldson in London at
kdonaldson1@bloomberg.net;Robert Hutton in London at
rhutton1@bloomberg.net;Tim Ross in London at tross54@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Emma Ross-Thomas at erossthomas@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs
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