{"id":22551,"date":"2018-07-09T08:12:45","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T07:12:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/?p=22551"},"modified":"2018-07-09T08:12:45","modified_gmt":"2018-07-09T07:12:45","slug":"david-davis-resigns-as-brexit-secretary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/david-davis-resigns-as-brexit-secretary\/","title":{"rendered":"David Davis resigns as Brexit secretary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Words: Delmar Terblanche
\n<\/strong>Subbing: Etienne Fermie<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Former Brexit secretary Dave Davis
Source: PA Images<\/p><\/div>\n

Dave Davis has resigned as Brexit secretary. The move comes as a protest against the government\u2019s vision for the policy, which he said \u201cwill leave us in at best a weak negotiating position, and possibly an inescapable one.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Dacis’ resignation comes just weeks before the deadline for the EU and Theresa May\u2019s government to agree on the terms of Brexit. Last week, the Prime Minister\u2019s cabinet agreed upon a plan which would see the UK closely tied to Brussels – more closely than many hard-line Brexiteers would have liked. <\/span><\/p>\n

The plan involved agreeing to EU regulations on agriculture and industry, thereby achieving a free trade area with the bloc, as well as striving towards a \u201ccombined customs territory\u201d. It was positively received in Brussels, with Michel Barnier tweeting: \u201cChequers discussion on future to be welcomed. I look forward to White Paper.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But now the appearance of consensus has been shattered with Davis\u2019 resignation. Writing to the PM he accused her plan of \u201c[handing] control of large swathes of our economy to the EU and\u2026 certainly not returning control of our laws in any real sense.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Following Mr Davis decision, two more Brexit Ministers, Steve Baker and Suella Braverman, have followed him out the door, citing the same lack of confidence that Brexit really means Brexit anymore.<\/span><\/p>\n

Theresa May has responded with a three page letter which defends her cabinet\u2019s decision, declaring \u201cI do not agree with your characterisation of the policy we agreed with the government on Friday\u2026 The direct effect of EU law will end when we leave the EU. Where the UK chooses to apply a common rulebook, each rule will have to be agreed by Parliament.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Prime Minister must now appoint a successor to Mr Davis and defend her government\u2019s strength and stability to parliament this evening. Already, the government has received criticism from hard-line Brexiteer MPs such as Jacob Rees-Mogg, who told BBC Radio 5 Live: “These proposals will have to come to the House of Commons in legislation and the question is ‘will they command support from Conservative MPs?’ And I think without David Davis there… it will be very difficult… and therefore the Prime Minister would be well advised to reconsider them.”<\/span><\/p>\n

A likely candidate to succeed Mr Davis is Michael Gove, the current Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Mr Gove was an ardent campaigner for Leave during the referendum, but has since repositioned himself as \u201cthe Brexiteer that remainers can do business with.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Jeremy Corbyn has tweeted that \u201cDavid Davis resigning at such a crucial time shows Theresa May has no authority left and is incapable of delivering Brexit,\u201d and has called on her to step down.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Words: Delmar Terblanche Subbing: Etienne Fermie Dave Davis has resigned as Brexit secretary. The move comes as a protest against the government\u2019s vision for the policy, which he said \u201cwill leave us in at best…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":22552,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93,101,134,145],"tags":[998,1031,2170,2182,3318,6314,6543,6867],"class_list":["post-22551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics","category-uknews","category-worldnews","tag-brexit","tag-british-politics","tag-eu","tag-european-union","tag-jeremy-corbyn","tag-theresa-may","tag-uk-politics","tag-westminster"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}