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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow, Graham Russell, Patrick Greenfield and Kevin Rawlinson

May reshuffles her pack after high-profile resignations over Brexit approach – as it happened

Evening summary

We’re going to close down this live blog after a frenetic day of politics news. Thanks for reading.

You can catch up on the full story here:

And here’s a summary of what’s happened this afternoon...

You can read a summary of the day’s earlier events here.

Updated

Guy Verhofstadt, the chief Brexit coordinator for the European Parliament, says he hopes today’s resignations will lead to unity in the UK government.

The Press Association has produced this illuminating graphic showing the number of cabinet ministers Theresa May has lost in the last year:

With friends like these: The ministers Theresa May has lost
With friends like these: The ministers Theresa May has lost Photograph: Zoe Norfolk/PA

Boris Johnson’s successor in the Foreign Office, Jeremy Hunt, praised his record. The attorney general of Anguilla, the hurricane-damaged British overseas territory Johnson was responsible for helping, is less convinced:

Some light relief on a night of Westminster machinations: Channel 4 News’ Jon Snow has to take care of some crowd control issues as he tries to conduct a live interview with Jacob Rees-Mogg:

Another appointment. This time Justin Tomlinson as an undersecretary at the DWP.

The Foreign Office has released footage of the new foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, arriving:

Speaking to Sky News just now, Hunt has paid tribute to Boris Johnson’s orchestration of the response to the poisoning of the former Russian spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter Yulia.

He said his job is to “stand foursquare behind the prime minister” to get through the deal announced after the Chequers talks. Hunt added that nations are looking at the UK “wondering what sort of country we’re going to be in the post-Brext world”, adding that we will be a “dependable ally”.

Geoffrey Cox appointed attorney general

Labour’s shadow health secretary, Justin Madders, has said:

Jeremy Hunt has overseen the worst collapse in patient standards of any health secretary in the history of the NHS.

His time in charge will be remembered for soaring waiting lists, huge staffing shortages, and patients left with treatments rationed and operations cancelled in record numbers.

It is an astonishing measure of the meltdown at the heart of the Tory government that this catalogue of failure is rewarded with promotion rather than the sack. Theresa May should call an end to this shambolic farce. Britain needs a functioning government, not this revolving door of failure.

Updated

The Press Association is reporting that Boris Johnson has left the foreign secretary’s official residence in central London, following his resignation.

Updated

Here’s one that’s unlikely to please Tory hard Brexiters: a few days after the referendum, Jeremy Hunt wrote an article for the Daily Telegraph calling for the UK to remain in the single market and on the government to work out a deal before triggering article 50, then putting it to a second referendum.

The first part of the plan must be clarity that we will remain in the single market. We are the world’s greatest trading nation. We have shaped the world and the world has shaped us through our history of being open to free trade and championing it more than any other. It is not just at the heart of our economic success – it is also at the heart of our identity as one of the most open, liberal, outward-looking societies anywhere.

So the British government needs to calm markets and many worried investors and businesses, both locally and internationally, by making it clear that it is an explicit national objective to remain in the single market even as we leave the institutions of the EU.

In the article, Hunt added:

Before setting the clock ticking, we need to negotiate a deal and put it to the British people, either in a referendum or through the Conservative manifesto at a fresh general election.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since those words were written, but Tory backbenchers are already grumbling about the four great offices of state being held by remainers.

A little snap reaction to composition of the cabinet after this round of appointments from a Labour MP and the Spectator’s political editor:

Responding to Hunt’s appointment as foreign secretary this evening, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson in that policy area, Christine Jardine, has said:

Jeremy Hunt has been set a devastatingly low bar by his predecessor when it comes to basic competency, with him leaving a litany of errors in his wake. Hunt does, however, also face an impossible challenge when it comes to advocating for Britain around the world at a time when his Conservative government are doing huge damage to our economy and influence in their pursuit of Brexit.

The public demand better from their government than the farce that they have been presented with this week and must be given the right to have the final say on the Brexit deal.

The new health secretary, soon after accepting his promotion:

Updated

Jeremy Wright appointed culture secretary

Now we have that confirmation: Jeremy Wright QC, the attorney general, is appointed culture secretary.

As we await possible further ministerial appointments, here’s Pippa Cerar on why Boris Johnson felt he had to resign – leading us to this point.

Hancock gets the bolt-on social car brief Hunt was given, though there is no confirmation of what happens to his current job – culture secretary.

Updated

Matt Hancock appointed health secretary

Matt Hancock, currently the culture secretary, replaces Jeremy Hunt as the health secretary, Downing Street announces.

So, the rumours were true.

Here – again – is Jessica Elgot’s profile of Jeremy Hunt, the great political survivor, from last month:

One parliamentary colleague said of him:

He’s on manoeuvres, there’s no doubt. The question is how far he is really prepared to push it.

And Jess’s take today:

Updated

Jeremy Hunt appointed foreign secretary

Rumours are circulating in Westminster that the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, could be asked to replace Boris Johnson as foreign secretary:

There is nothing even approaching confirmation on that at the moment, mind.

The Scottish Conservative leader, Ruth Davidson, is backing the prime minister – using language very similar to that in the latter’s note to Boris Johnson:

May’s letter also contains a clear retort to Johnson’s thinly veiled reference in his own correspondence to the leave campaign’s debunked slogan about spending £350m on the NHS, instead of sending it to the EU.

May wrote that her Brexit plan would mean and end to “the days of sending vast sums of taxpayers’ money to the European Union”.

We will be able to spend that money on our priorities instead – such as the £20bn increase we have announced for the NHS budget, which means that we will soon be spending an extra £394m a week on our National Health Service.

May’s own claims on that have also raised serious questions, of course.

The prime minister also seems to strike a slightly irritated note with a now former foreign secretary whose resignation or sacking has repeatedly been mooted during her tenure.

As we developed our policy on Brexit, I have allowed cabinet colleagues considerable latitude to express their individual views. But the agreement we reached on Friday marks the point where that is no longer the case, and 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 'sorry and a little surprised' by Johnson's resignation

The prime minister, Theresa May, has replied to Boris Johnson’s resignation by pointing out that he initially agreed to the plan over which he is now resigning. She wrote:

I am sorry – and a little surprised – to receive [your resignation letter] after the productive discussions we had at Chequers on Friday, and the comprehensive and detailed proposal which we agreed as a cabinet.

Updated

It would appear Boris Johnson’s former parliamentary private secretary, Conor Burns, is following him out the door:

With one attendee having resigned shortly after what had initially appeared to be a reasonably successful meeting of the 1922 committee for Theresa May, a packed-out meeting of the influential hard Brexit European Research Group will be one to watch:

Updated

Chris Green, the parliamentary private secretary to the Department for Transport, has resigned.

He says Brexit should not exist solely in a legalistic sense and that the prime minister failed to assuage his concerns at the meeting of the Tory backbenchers this evening – the first major sign of discontentment since that meeting ended.

Updated

The Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, is largely staying out of the crisis that is threatening to engulf Theresa May’s government, with his spokesperson saying the high-profile resignations of David Davis and Boris Johnson are matters for the May.

On the Brexit negotiations, however, Varadkar’s spokesperson was much more forthright:

We welcome the fact that the British cabinet agreed collectively on detailed proposals for the future relationship between the EU and Britain on Friday. And we look forward to seeing greater detail in the UK’s white paper later this week.

There’s still a lot of work to do, particularly from the British side. Time is running out.

The commitments the UK has already signed up to must be translated into the withdrawal agreement and we need to intensify efforts on all outstanding issues, especially the protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Updated

In his resignation letter, Boris Johnson brought up an example he has cited before about supposed EU inflexibility – delays in changing lorry standards to permit bigger windows, so drivers can more easily see cyclists and pedestrian.

In the letter, Johnson describes a meeting at Chequers in February, “when I described by frustrations, as mayor of London, in trying to protect cyclists for juggernauts. We had wanted to lower the cabin windows to improve visibility; and even though such designs were already on the market, and even though there had already been a horrific spate of deaths, mainly of female cyclists, we were told we had to wait for the EU to legislate on the matter.”

Is he justified in this? Well, yes and no. Critics said that EU rules on lorry design had tended to prioritise views via mirrors over blind spots, and campaigners had called for some time for a change.

But, when the EU did act to amend this in 2014, Johnson had directed his ire elsewhere – at the government of David Cameron, which was wary about the plans. Johnson said he was “deeply concerned at their attitude”.

In the end the government did accept the idea, and the new, safer lorries started being permitted from this year.

Updated

The prime minister, Theresa May, addressed MPs at a private 1922 Committee meeting for an hour, warning them that divided parties would lose elections and that any further division risked bringing about a Labour government. She was backed by loyalist MPs such as Patrick McLoughlin and Damian Green.

One cabinet minister said:

If we don’t pull together, we risk the election of Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister. At least half a dozen people made that point and the prime minister responded too – what is good for the country is a Conservative government.

There was a strong coming-together of the party – even some Brexit MPs right on the end of the spectrum. They might have arguments with the policy, but they are backing the prime minister.

MPs banged walls and chairs as the prime minister entered, a public show of support. The party chair, Brandon Lewis, said:

Everyone in the room is very confident of her ability to deliver. We are a wide tent, of course, with different views. This is the right package for our country.

Referring to the atmosphere in the room, one MP added:

It wasn’t a chorus of dissent, but it wasn’t universally positive. Some of the Brexiters are very vigorous individuals, they make their views known in quite strong language.

But the hard Brexit-supporting backbencher, Jacob Rees-Mogg, whom some see as a future Tory leader, said he had not been won over.

The striking thing about Chequers is that the cabinet divided between remainers and leavers in exactly the same way as they did two years ago. Those who supported remain are supporting the quasi-remain now.

Rees-Mogg said it was of “grave concern” that the government had briefed Labour MPs. “If they plan to get this deal through on the back of Labour votes, that would be the most divisive thing that they can do.”

However, his fellow Brexiter MP, Geoffrey Cox, said he had been won over by the deal.

It means for the first time that the EU will not make laws inside this country. I campaigned for Brexit, I am going to be able to tell people now that for the first time in 40 years, no supranational institution in the EU will be able to make a new law for this country. I don’t think that all my colleagues had understood that.

Updated

Nigel Farage says he will seek to return to his former position as the leader of Ukip “if Article 50 is suspended or delayed”. In an article for the Daily Telegraph, he writes:

In March 2019, the current leader of Ukip, Gerard Batten, will reach the end of his term in office. Unless Brexit is back on track by then, I will have to seriously consider putting my name forward to return as Ukip leader.

The White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, responding to questions about the US president Donald Trump’s visit to the UK this week in the light of recent events, has said:

The president continues to look forward to his working visit with the prime minister on 13 July, and further strengthening the US-UK special relationship.

The former deputy prime minister, Michael Heseltine, tells BBC News he believes Theresa May would win a Tory leadership contest if she invited one now because there is no one suitable to replace her.

There is no point in changing the singer unless you change the song.

May herself appears to have warned her MPs about the dangers of a damaging leadership battle:

Updated

We are now starting to get some noises from the meeting of the Tory backbench group, the 1922 Committee. They suggest the prime minister still had some support in the room following claims this afternoon enough backbenchers had abandoned her to force a confidence vote.

Of course, that was true of Chequers on Friday evening.

Here’s the full text of Boris Johnson’s resignation letter to the prime minister, Theresa May:

Dear Theresa

It is more than two years since the British people voted to leave the European Union on an unambiguous and categorical promise that if the did so they would be taking back control of their democracy.

They were told that they would be able to manage their own immigration policy, repatriate the sums of UK cash currently spent by the EU, and, above all, that they would be able to pass laws independently and in the interests of the people of this country.

Brexit should be about opportunity and hope. It should be a chance to do things differently, to be more nimble and dynamic, and to maximise the particular advantages of the UK as an open, outward-looking global economy.

That dream is dying, suffocated by needless self-doubt.

We have postponed crucial decisions – including the preparations for no deal, as I argued in my letter to you of last November – with the result that we appear to be heading for a semi-Brexit, with large parts of the economy still locked in the EU system, but with no UK control over that system.

It now seems that the opening bid of our negotiations involves accepting that we are not actually going to be able to make our own laws. Indeed we seem to have gone backwards since the last Chequers meeting in February, when I described my frustrations, as Mayor of London, in trying to protect cyclists from juggernauts. We had wanted to lower the cabin windows to improve visibility; and even though such designs were already on the market, and even though there had been a horrific spate of deaths, mainly female cyclists, we were told that we had to wait for the EU to legislate on the matter.

So, at the previous Chequers session we thrashed out an elaborate procedure for divergence from EU rules. But even now that seems to have been taken off the table and there is in fact no easy UK right of initiative. Yet if Brexit is to mean anything, it must surely give ministers and parliament the chance to do things differently to protect the public. If a country cannot pass a law to save the lives of female cyclists – when that proposal is supported at every level of UK government – then I don’t see how that country can truly be called independent.

Conversely, the British government has spent decades arguing against this or that EU directive, on the grounds that it was too burdensome or ill-thought out. We are now in the ludicrous position of asserting that we must accept huge amounts of precisely such EU law, without changing it an iota, because it is essential for our economic health – and when we no longer have the ability to influence these laws as they are made.

In that respect we are truly headed for the status of colony – and many will struggle to see the economic or political advantages of that particular arrangement.

It is also clear that by surrendering control over our rulebook for goods and agrifoods (and much else besides) we will make it much more difficult to do free trade deals. And then there is the further impediment of having to argue for an impractical and undeliverable customs arrangement unlike any other in existence.

What is even more disturbing is that this is our opening bid. This is already how we see the end state for the UK – before the other side has made its counter-offer. It is as though we are sending our vanguard into battle with the white flags fluttering above them. Indeed, I was concerned, looking at Friday’s document, that there might be further concessions on immigration, or that we might end up effectively paying for access to the single market.

On Friday I acknowledged that my side of the argument were too few to prevail, and congratulated you on at least reaching a cabinet decision on the way forward. As I said then, the government now has a song to sing. The trouble is that I have practised the words over the weekend and find that they stick in the throat. We must have collective responsibility. Since I cannot in all conscience champion these proposals, I have sadly concluded that I must go.

I am proud to have served as foreign secretary in your government. As I step down, I would like first to thank the patient officers of the Metropolitan police who have looked after me and my family, at times in demanding circumstances. I am proud too of the extraordinary men and women of our diplomatic service. Over the last few months they have shown how many friends this country has around the world, as 28 governments expelled Russian spies in an unprecedented protest at the attempted assassination of the Skripals. They have organised a highly successful Commonwealth summit and secured record international support for this government’s campaign for 12 years of quality education for every girl, and much more besides. As I leave office, the [Foreign and Commonwealth Office] now has the largest and by far the most effective diplomatic network of any country in Europe - a continent which we will never leave.

Boris Johnson

In his letter, Johnson refers to the various promises that were made by the leave campaigners, among whom he was prominent, saying:

It is more than two years since the British people voted to leave the European Union on an unambiguous and categorical promise that if the did so they would be taking back control of their democracy.

They were told that they would be able to manage their own immigration policy, repatriate the sums of UK cash currently spent by the EU, and, above all, that they would be able to pass laws independently and in the interests of the people of this country.

Brexit 'dream is dying', says Johnson

The former foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, has told the prime minister the UK is “headed for the status of colony” under the approach the cabinet adopted at Chequers on Friday. In his resignation letter to Theresa May, he added that the Brexit “dream is dying”.

Describing May’s position, which he – along with the rest of the cabinet – initially backed, as just an opening offer that would be watered down yet further during negotiations, Johnson wrote:

It is as though we are sending our vanguard into battle with the white flags fluttering above them.

He told the prime minister he believed the UK was “heading for a semi-Brexit”.

Bernard Jenkin, the Conservative Brexiter, has said Boris Johnson “acted on principle” when he resigned from the cabinet, the FT’s Laura Hughes reports.

That is not the way many people would characterise Johnson’s behaviour. As a reminder, this is what Tim Shipman said about Johnson’s conduct at the Friday cabinet meeting at Chequers in the Sunday Times (paywall) yesterday.

Boris Johnson was joking but his frustration was self-evident. The foreign secretary was blunt about Theresa May’s new plan for Brexit. “It’s a big turd,” he pronounced to the cabinet. It was the morning session of the prime minister’s Friday summit at Chequers aimed at thrashing out a negotiating position for a trade deal with Brussels.

In what was described by one minister present as “a six-minute moan”, Johnson complained that May’s customs plan — in which the UK will collect tariffs on behalf of the European Union — and which the foreign secretary had thought was dead, had instead “emerged zombie-like from the coffin”.

He warned May and her spin doctors that plans to accept EU rules on the sales of goods going forward would leave Britain a “vassal state”. It was a clear failure to fulfil the referendum pledge to “take back control of our laws”.

Anyone defending the proposal “will be polishing a turd” if they wished to sell the deal to the public and the party, he said, pointing out that he had recently watched similar activities on a trip to Whipsnade zoo. “I see there are some expert turd polishers here,” he added ...

Yet by the time dinner of cured Scottish salmon and Oxfordshire beef fillet was served, the Brexiteers were cowed. Davis gave a speech explaining how the blueprint could be sold to the EU. Johnson, now a cheerleader, said they must all help to sell the deal ...

This weekend Johnson’s allies said he had stayed because he fears that if he left the cabinet there would be further concessions and it would make life easier for senior figures in the EU.

“The only people who would benefit from Boris leaving the cabinet would be [Michel] Barnier, [Angela] Merkel and [Martin] Selmayr,” a friend said.

That’s all from me for today.

My colleague Kevin Rawlinson is taking over now.

Updated

Sir Alan Duncan, the Foreign Office minister, has paid this tribute to his former boss.

I had two amazing years in the foreign office working with Boris Johnson. He was and remains a larger than life figure, one of politics’ great characters. He was probably the best known foreign secretary before he became foreign secretary and I am sure he will contribute massively still to British politics and I think we should just really say to him thank you for playing your part in public life in the way you have.

A lot of what he did in the foreign office was not seen by people outside. He was a supremely strong character in diplomatic lobbying and persuasion. I really enjoyed working for him, and I count him as a friend.

Official government briefcases being taken away from Carlton Garden, which was Boris Johnson’s government home until he resigned as foreign secretary.
Official government briefcases being taken away from Carlton Garden, which was Boris Johnson’s government home until he resigned as foreign secretary. Photograph: Rick Findler/EPA

The table-bangers are out in force for the prime minister, the BBC’s Iain Watson and Ross Hawkins report.

May's Commons statement: Snap verdict

All things considered, May seemed surprisingly confident. She did not say anything especially new or revealing about the Chequers plan, and Labour MPs were very critical, suggesting that its shelf life may turn out to be very limited. (The EU will not accept it without changes anyway but, even if they were to, Brexiter opposition means May would need opposition support to get it through the Commons - which on the basis of what is being said today, she does not have.)

Tory Brexiters were more critical of May’s plan than they have been of anything she has said or done in the past. But the complaints were coming from the “usual suspects”, and they attacked her plan, not her leadership. And we did not seen mainstream, middle-of-the-road Tory heavyweights - swing voters, so to speak - denouncing her. She won’t be chalking up this afternoon as a triumph, but it could have been a lot worse.

She is now addressing the 1922 committee. That is a private meeting, and so the dynamics of that will be different. Some MPs feel that it is disloyal to criticise in public, but feel less inhibited about doing so in private. But at 1922 meetings loyalists can drown out their opponents (literally - these are the meetings where they bang the desks enthusiastically), and presumably May’s supporters are trying to orchestrate that sort of reception for her tonight.

Updated

Sir Peter Bottomley, a Conservative, tells May she has the “overwhelming support” of her party and MPs in the Commons.

May welcomes what he says.

And that’s the end of May’s statement. John Bercow says 95 backbenchers asked questions.

Theresa May is almost certainly not planning to appoint Jacob Rees-Mogg as foreign secretary. But if she were to try, he would say no, ITV’s Carl Dinnen reports.

Conor Burns, who was Boris Johnson’s parliamentary private secretary, has told Radio 4’s PM programme that there could be more ministerial resignations, the Independent’s Ashley Cowburn reports.

ITV’s Robert Peston reckons Sir Graham Brady hasn’t (yet?) received the 48 letters that would trigger a confidence vote.

The Conservative Brexiter Nigel Evans asks if there is anything in the Chequers plan that could inhibit a trade deal with the US.

May says, in any trade deal, the UK must decide what standards it wants to comply with.

In the Commons Labour’s Kevin Brennan asked May about the Kuenssberg 48 letters tweet. May did not respond directly, and just said she was getting on with her job.

There are rumours that 48 Tory MPs have now signed letters asking for a no-confidence vote on Theresa May, the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg reports.

The only person who knows for sure will be Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 Committee.

This procedure was last used when Tory MPs triggered a no-confidence vote against Iain Duncan Smith in 2003. Duncan Smith lost.

If Brady has got the 48 letters, you would expect him to announce a contest quite quickly, but not necessarily immediately. He never discusses exactly how the process works, but one issue might be the need to check that people who submitted letters some time ago still want a contest.

The Yorkshire Post’s Arj Singh says he has been told the 1922 Committee is not yet organising a confidence vote.

But it is possible that there could be a link between Boris Johnson resigning and some letters going in – either because some Tories did not want to trigger a vote until they knew Johnson was available, or because Johnson was holding off resigning until he knew sufficient letters had been submitted.

Updated

In the Commons Labour’s Stephen Kinnock says May’s customs plan would be a bureaucratic nightmare. He says remaining in the EEA (European Economic Area) would be much simpler. Why doesn’t May just choose that option?

May says Kinnock has forgotten that the Commons voted overwhelmingly against staying in the EEA.

Updated

And here is Patrick Wintour, the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, on Boris Johnson.

Here is my colleague Martin Kettle’s take on Boris Johnson’s resignation.

And here is how it starts.

Boris Johnson’s resignation turns Theresa May’s manic Monday from a crisis about Brexit policy into a crisis about the Conservative leadership. The resignation is not about the former. It is about the latter. David Davis resigned overnight because he disagreed with May’s policy on customs and trade links with Europe. Johnson has now followed him because he wants to become prime minister. Davis resigned on an issue of principle; Johnson resigned on an issue of self-interest.

Labour’s Wes Streeting says there is no majority in the Commons for the Chequers deal. “It is dead.” EU leaders won’t take it seriously because it won’t get through parliament. He says it may deliver a soft Brexit for goods, but it delivers a hard Brexit for services.

May says she is proposing what is best for the UK.

Updated

Labour’s Mary Creagh asks if May has appointed a new foreign secretary.

May says she has been in the chamber for most of the time since Boris Johnson resigned. She will appoint a successor in due course, she says.

In the Commons John Baron, a Conservative, asks May to accept that asking other countries to comply with EU standards on goods will make it harder to agree trade deals.

May says slashing standards may be a theoretical option, but the Commons would not necessarily want to do this. She says the government has said it will maintain standards.

No 10 says May will fight to keep her job if there's a no confidence vote

Downing Street has confirmed that Theresa May will fight to keep her job if Tory MPs trigger a no-confidence vote, my colleague Heather Stewart reports.

Updated

In the Commons Stephen Hammond, one of the leading Tory pro-Europeans, says businesses in his constituency will welcome what the cabinet decided.

John Whittingdale, the Brexiter Conservative former culture secretary, has congratulated Boris Johnson, David Davis and Steve Baker on their stance.

Here are two blogs on the Boris Johnson resignation that are worth reading:

A well-connected source has just told me that it could be more serious than that.

They told me it is a concerted push to force the prime minister to drop her Chequers’ compromise.

They said: “If she doesn’t drop Chequers there will be another, then another, then another, then another”.

Mr Johnson took a while to make his mind up, arguably many months. It’s not the most dignified resignation perhaps, waiting for Mr Davis to take the lead and then pondering the pluses and minuses of a move now.

No. 10 had calculated that it could face these two resignations and might be able to survive them. But it can’t be sure. It can be reasonably sure now that an attempt on the PM’s leadership will be made. Forty-eight MPs need to send in letters demanding a vote of no confidence. That now looks very plausible.

Updated

Andrea Jenkyns, a Tory Brexiter, says she has received hundreds of emails from people disappointed by the Chequers plan. How can she restore faith in politics?

May says she is delivering what people wanted: taking back control of laws, immigration and money, pulling the UK out of the common agriculture policy and the common fisheries policy and allowing the UK to negotiate trade deals.

Updated

Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, has issued a statement backing Theresa May.

May rejects claim her Chequers plan amounts to Brexit 'betrayal'

Peter Bone, the Conservative Brexiter, says that for the first time in 10 years activists in his constituency refused to campaign with him this Saturday because they were so disappointed with the Chequers plan.

On Saturday mornings I lead the listening team in Wellingborough. We have an hour’s meeting where we talk about national and local politics and then we go out and campaign for two hours. This week, the activists were so disappointed about what had happened at Chequers. They said they were betrayed and they asked, ‘Why do we go out each and every Saturday to support the Conservative party and get MPs elected?’

For the first time in over 10 years, that group refused to go out and campaign. What would the prime minister say to them?

May replied:

Can I say first of all I’m very sorry his activists did not feel able to go out and campaign - I would hope they would campaign for their excellent member of parliament and win support for him on the doorsteps.

This is not a betrayal. We will end free movement, we will end the jurisdiction of the European court of justice, we will stop sending vast sums of money to the European Union every year, we will come out of the common agricultural policy, we will come out of the common fisheries policy.

I believe that is what people voted for when they voted to leave and we will deliver in faith to the British people.

Updated

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Tory Brexiter, says a Number 10 briefing said any trade deal with the US would have to involve a carve-out for agriculture, because the UK would abide by EU standards.

May says that would be an issue regardless of what Brexit deal emerges. The UK will want to maintain standards in some areas, she says. That could constrain a future trade deal. She says another country might want the UK to slash its standards for the sake of a trade deal, but the UK would reject that.

But the Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith has applauded Johnson’s decision to resign.

David Davis refuses to say he welcomes Boris Johnson’s resignation

In an interview with LBC, David Davis was asked for his reaction to Boris Johnson’s resignation. He replied:

Regret, really. I had resigned because this was central. This was central to my job and if we continue with this policy and I was still there, I’d have to present it in the House of Commons. I’d have to present it in Europe. I’d have to be the champion of the policy which I didn’t believe in, so that doesn’t work. Somebody else can do a better job than me under those circumstances. I don’t think it’s central to the foreign secretary. It’s a pity, but there we are.

  • David Davis refuses to say he welcomes Boris Johnson’s resignation.

Labour’s Yvette Cooper says no one understands how May’s facilitated customs arrangement would work. She says May has shown that pandering to both sides does not work. She says May should put a plan to the Commons so MPs can vote on it. May cannot just sit there saying “nothing has changed”.

May says that is not what she is saying.

Updated

Labour’s Hilary Benn, the chair of the Commons Brexit committee, asks May to confirm that the transition period will have to be extended because HMRC will need more time to introduce the customs arrangements required by the facilitated customs arrangement.

May replies with a single word: “No.”

Updated

Anna Soubry, the Conservative pro-European, congratulates May on her leadership. But she says she is concerned about the impact of her plan on services.

May says the government wants more flexibility on services. It wants to be able to put in place what is necessary to maintain the UK’s leading role in services, not least in financial services.

Sir Vince Cable, the Lib Dem leader, congratulates May on killing off a UK-US free trade deal. He says that cannot take place now because the US would not accept EU rules on food.

Updated

Sir Bill Cash, the Conservative Brexiter, asks how May reconciles her plan with democratic self-government.

May says the UK is leaving the jurisdiction of the European court of justice. It will be up to parliament to decide if it wants to comply with new rules.

Updated

Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, repeats the line Corbyn used about it taking two years for May to come up with a Brexit plan, and two days for it to come apart.

He says that May has to stop kowtowing to Tory Brexiters.

He says May should accept that there is mounting evidence against a hard Brexit. He says May should work with other parties to stay in the single market and the customs union.

May says her answer to that is an unequivocal no. The UK is leaving the single market and the customs union.

This is from Sky’s Beth Rigby.

Iain Duncan Smith, the Conservative former party leader and Brexiter, asks if any concessions will be offered to the EU.

May says when the white paper is published Duncan Smith will see that it contains some areas, such as involvement in agencies, where there will have to be a negotiation.

May says Corbyn was supposed to ask some questions but did not actually do so.

On standards, May says the government is committed to maintaining high regulatory standards for the environment, climate change, employment, and consumer protection.

On the subject of resignations, she says Corbyn has had 103 resignations from his frontbench. So she will take no lectures from him.

She says Labour can’t speak about economic policy. Their policies would lead to a run on the pound.

Updated

Jeremy Corbyn says the cabinet Brexit deal took two years to negotiate and two days to unravel.

He mocks May’s claim that she has restored cabinet collective responsibility.

He says he understands why ministers did not resign on Friday; their phones were removed, they would have lost their cars, and, because of government cuts, there would have been no bus services.

Turning to Dominic Raab, the new Brexit secretary, Corbyn says Raab is on record as favouring reducing rights. (There is more on Raab’s views in this Guardian article from six years ago.)

Corbyn says jobs are at risk from Brexit. They should not be a sub-plot in a Tory civil war. He says we need a government than can negotiate on behalf of Britain. And if they can’t, “they should make way for those who can”.

Updated

Malthouse and Heaton-Harris promoted in mini shuffle

Number 10 has announced two promotions.

Kat Malthouse, a work and pensions minister, replaces Dominic Raab as housing minister.

And Chris Heaton-Harris becomes a junior minister at the Brexit department, replacing Steve Baker.

Updated

Since the referendum there has been “a spirited national debate” on Brexit.

She has listened to every possible idea, she says. She says this is the right one to pursue.

May confirms the government white paper on Brexit will be published on Thursday.

May says her proposals are consistent with what the Conservative manifesto promised.

She goes on:

What we are proposing is challenging for the EU.

That triggers laughter.

She says her plan would require the EU to think again.

Back in the Commons May says 96% of businesses would not face extra bureaucracy for the government’s new customs plan, a facilitated customs arrangement.

She says some people have said the UK would not be able to strike trade deals under her plan. That is wrong, she says.

Here is Sir Vince Cable, the Lib Dem leader, on Boris Johnson’s resignation.

May says the friction-free movement of goods is the only way to avoid a hard border in Ireland, and a border between Ireland and Britain, and the only way to protect supply chains.

She says she is proposing four steps that will enable this.

These are set out in the three-page government document (pdf) published on Friday night.

She says the EU goods regulations that the UK would have to accept are relatively stable. There would be a parliamentary lock on any new laws, she says.

She says parliament would be able to reject any proposals if it wanted, recognising that there would be consequences.

Updated

May is now summarising her Brexit plan.

She says the two models proposed by the EU are unacceptable. She says no prime minister could accept a plan that would separate Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.

And she says keeping the whole of the UK in the single market and customs union would mean accepting free movement, having to follow EU law and having to go on paying huge sums to Europe.

She says if the EU continues on its current course, that could lead to a no-deal Brexit.

A responsible government must prepare for a range of outcomes, including no deal, she says.

But a no-deal would have profound consequences for the UK and the EU.

So the cabinet agreed to propose a new model, she says.

Updated

Theresa May's Commons statement

Theresa May gets a loud cheer as she stands up.

She starts by expressing her condolences to the family and friends of the novichok victim, Dawn Sturgess, who has died.

Then she thanks David Davis and Boris Johnson for their work. She thanks Davis for what he did steering Brexit legislation through the Commons. And she pays tribute to the “passion” Johnson showed in promoting a global Britain to the world.

Updated

European council president Donald Tusk

Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, is wondering aloud whether the UK might reject Brexit.

This is from the Evening Standard’s Jim Armitage.

This is from the Guido Fawkes website.

This is from the Spectator’s James Forsyth.

Updated

The government is in “complete and utter chaos”, Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, has said.

Boris Johnson is about to leave his official residence at Carlton Gardens, the BBC reports.

What Boris Johnson's resignation means - Snap analysis

David Davis’s resignation as Brexit secretary did not trigger an immediate threat to Theresa May’s leadership. He insisted that he wanted her to stay as prime minister and, by lunchtime today, despite numerous Tory Brexiters taking to the airwaves denouncing May’s Brexit plan, we had not heard any calls for her departure. That was because, with most cabinet ministers supporting her, it seemed very likely that May would win a confidence vote handsomely.

Now, though, the Brexiters have got an alternative candidate – assuming Johnson does mount a leadership challenge. Whether he will or not is unclear at this point; as I write, we have not heard any statement from Johnson. And, after the Heathrow expansion vote no-show and Johnson’s decision to back May’s plan at Chequers on Friday after telling cabinet ministers that doing so amounts to “polishing a turd”, Johnson is a diminished figure. But he has wanted to be prime minister since he was a child (or “king of the world”, as he described his goal then) and this is probably his last chance. A challenge does seem very likely.

Could he win? It would be very hard. Only 129 Conservative MPs voted leave – less than half – and even many of those have reservations about the hard Brexit vision set out by Johnson, which the cabinet comprehensively rejected on Friday. Also, among colleagues, trust in Johnson is low. Johnson is popular with Conservative party members. But they would only get to vote in a leadership contest if May were to lose a vote of confidence, and May is reportedly keen to fight and win such a contest.

Updated

Here is our story about Boris Johnson’s resignation.

Boris Johnson has resigned

Boris Johnson has resigned.

Downing Street put out this statement.

This afternoon, the prime minister accepted the resignation of Boris Johnson as foreign secretary. His replacement will be announced shortly. The prime minister thanks Boris for his work.

Updated

The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg has got some info from the ministerial drivers – normally the best-informed people in Whitehall when it comes to imminent reshuffles and resignations.

Updated

Gavin Barwell, the prime minister’s chief of staff, will not now be briefing opposition MPs on Theresa May’s Brexit plan. (See 9.29am.) Labour MPs were invited to a briefing by Barwell this afternoon. But the news infuriated Tory Brexiters, who were unhappy about the idea of Barwell consorting with the enemy, and now the briefing will still go ahead, but with officials doing the briefing, not Barwell.

Updated

This is from my colleague Pippa Crerar, a former Evening Standard City Hall editor.

Updated

Theresa May is losing the support of Conservative supporters who voted leave, which is more than half of them, YouGov reports.

This is from ITV’s Robert Peston.

The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg has more on the hunt for Boris Johnson.

Lunchtime summary

  • Dominic Raab, a Brexit-supporting minister, has been promoted to replace David Davis as Brexit secretary, No 10 has announced. Theresa May had embark on a mini reshuffle after Davis announced his resignation late last night, saying that he could not defend the Brexit plan agreed by the cabinet at Chequers on Friday. Davis’s resignation came as May was already facing an angry backlash from Conservative Brexiters who believe that her plan to ensure the UK accepts a “common rulebook” with the EU on goods (ie, the EU’s rulebook) means that Britain will remain a “ruletaker” after Brexit. The outburst of Brexiter anger poses a potential threat to May’s leadership, but not necessarily an imminent one. Davis has said he does not want to see May replaced (see 9.43am), and although many Brexiters are saying May’s plan is unacceptable, we have not heard any of them today saying May must quit. May is preparing to defend her strategy, in a statement to MPs at 3.30pm and then in a private meeting with Conservative MPs at 6pm.
  • Davis has said that May’s claim that her plan will return power to the House of Commons is “illusory”. (See 9.43am)
  • Andrea Leadsom, the Brexiter leader of the Commons, has said that there must be “no special favours” for EU nationals after Brexit - contradicting May, who has specifically left open this option. (See 12.38pm.)
  • Steve Baker, the Brexit minister who resigned alongside Davis, has said that anti-Brexiter briefing by Number 10 last week was “childish nonsense”. (See 12.26pm.) May has not yet replaced him as a minister of state in the Brexit department. But the department has confirmed that Suella Braverman, another prominent leave voter, is remaining as a Brexit minister. Last night it was reported that she had quit too, and earlier this morning the department could not say whether or not she was still in post.
  • Labour MPs have been invited to a Downing Street briefing about May’s Brexit plan. The move is being seen as a sign that, with Tory Brexiters determined to vote against it, May will only get her proposals through the Commons with the support of the opposition.
  • Woody Johnson, the US ambassador to the UK, has said that the prospective UK-US trade deal is now “up in the air” in the light of the Chequers plan. (See 12.57pm,)
  • Boris Johnson has missed a scheduled appearance at the West Balkans summit. There are also reports that he missed this morning’s Cobra meeting about the Wiltshire novichok poisoning, prompting speculation that he will announce his resignation as foreign secretary later today.

Updated

Sir Graham Brady, the Conservative MP who chairs the backbench 1922 committee, has refused to say if any MPs have submitted letters calling for a no confidence vote in Theresa May. He said:

My view ever since I became chairman of the ‘22 is that it would be entirely improper ever to comment in any way on that subject, because inevitably a commentary could influence the course of events.

Here is the Lib Dem MP Layla Moran responding to Andrea Leadsom saying EU nationals should not get preferential access to the UK after Brexit. (See 12.38pm.) Moran is a supporter of the anti-Brexit group Best for Britain, which issued her remark. She said:

Leadsom has undermined the Prime Minister in an attempt to shut down any possibility of preferential access for EU workers post-Brexit, as the cracks in the cabinet continue to worsen.

This would be a senseless and ideological move, leading to even more pressure on sectors which greatly rely on labour from the continent, not least our NHS and agricultural industries.

Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, says Boris Johnson will be a “hero” if he resigns.

And more from the Sun’s Matt Dathan.

More from ITV’s Paul Brand on Boris Johnson.

ITV’s Paul Brand claims there has been another Boris Johnson no-show. (See 1.20pm.)

But the Sun’s Matt Dathan says Boris Johnson is at the Cobra meeting.

Updated

This is from the Times’ Sam Coates.

And this is from my colleague Pippa Crerar.

This is from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

David Davis first drafted his resignation letter at least one month ago, friend reveals

Paul Goodman, the former Tory MP who now edits the ConservativeHome website, is a close friend of David Davis’s. He has written a revealing post about what drove Davis to resign which says that Davis first drafted a resignation letter at least a month ago. Here is how Goodman’s article starts.

“It is possible that you are right and I am wrong,” David Davis writes to Theresa May in his resignation letter. The phrase was in a draft that I saw just over a month ago on the evening of June 6. Earlier in the day, he had been asked, after delivering a speech at RUSI, whether or not he would resign if the prime minister did not offer a date by which, in the event of a Brexit deal, the backstop arrangement over the UK-Ireland border would end. “That’s a question, I think, for the prime minister, to be honest,” he replied. This was less of an evasion than a confession. The Brexit secretary was trying to think through, using the logic tree methods that he loves to deploy, what to do for the best – and what the range of outcomes of a resignation might be. He hadn’t made up his mind what to do.

Goodman also defends Davis from the charge of not spending enough time talking to his EU opposite number, Michel Barnier. Goodman says:

Davis feared that if the Commons wasn’t presented with a detailed trade proposal in the autumn, it would vote the deal down, projecting the government and the country into unknown and unknowable political territory. Hence the urgent need to get a move on: get a proper customs policy – the stand-off over agreeing one was helping to tick the clock down – get a broader approach agreed and a white paper published; get back round the negotiating table. That he had spent only four hours since Christmas negotiating with Michel Barnier had been well reported. The bleeding obvious had gained less traction: that, until or unless the government had first closed its divisions, there wasn’t much to talk about.

David Davis (left) with Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator.
David Davis (left) with Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator. Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Conservative chair of the pro-Brexit European Research Group who seems to appear on TV roughly every ten minutes today, has spoken to BBC News and has a couple of extra things to say. Firstly, he has praised Dominic Raab’s appointment – but only if he has some power:

Dominic is very able. But the key is – who will be doing these negotiations? Will it continue to be 10 Downing Street or will it be done by Dominic?

Secondly, Rees-Mogg claimed May would be able to get a hard Brexit-friendly Canada-style deal through the Commons, as Tory MPs would support it if the only other option was a no-deal departure. “So the parliamentary arithmetic is much more on the prime minister’s side than some commentators seem to think,” he said.

Proposed UK-US trade deal 'up in the air' after Chequers plan, says US ambassador

On Friday Woody Johnson, the US ambassador to the UK, said that a free trade deal with the UK was a priority for the US. The pro-Brexit Daily Express event splashed on the news. The UK-US trade deal is totemic of some Brexiters; to them, it represents the bright economic future the UK will have when it leaves the EU.

But now the trade deal is in doubt. In an interview with Anna Foster on BBC Radio 5 Live, Johnson was asked about the status of the proposed deal in the light of what was agreed at Chequers. He replied:

I think that there was a briefing that came out, as I understand it. It was very short, a couple of pages. This is a lot more complicated than a couple of pages. I would say that the bilateral agreement, whether we have one or not, is totally up in the air at this point.

Woody Johnson, the US ambassador to the UK.
Woody Johnson, the US ambassador to the UK. Photograph: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Leadsom defies May and says there must be 'no special favours' for EU nationals after Brexit

On the Daily Politics Andrea Leadsom, the Brexiter leader of the Commons, and the runner up behind Theresa May in the Conservative leadership contest, said that the UK will not offer EU nationals preferential access to the UK after Brexit. EU nationals would be in the same category as workers from a country like India, she suggested.

Freedom of movement will end and there will be no special favours for EU citizens over anybody else with whom you might have visa reciprocity. So, for example, with India we have some special visa arrangements for high-skilled jobs and so on ...

When asked specifically if EU nationals would get any preferential treatment, Leadsom said no.

But this is quite different from Theresa May was saying on Saturday. In an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, May specifically did not rule out giving preferential treatment to EU nationals. She signalled that this was an option, and said that the government would decide later.

In Brussels it is assumed that any deal giving the UK half-decent access to the single market would have to involve EU nationals getting preferential access to the UK (and certainly a better deal than workers from a country like India, where there are regular complaints about UK visa policies being too restrictive.)

And the three-page government document (pdf) summarising May’s Brexit policy released on Friday night clearly implied that EU nationals would not be treated like all other non-UK nationals after Brexit. It said the government plan would:

include a mobility framework so that UK and EU citizens can continue to travel to each other’s territories, and apply for study and work – similar to what the UK may offer other close trading partners in the future.

Andrea Leadsom
Andrea Leadsom Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA

Updated

And here is Theresa May’s response to Steve Baker’s resignation letter. (See 12.05pm.)

In it, May suggests that Baker could return to the government in the future. “I know that you have much left to contribute in the future,” May writes.

May’s response to Steve Baker’s resignation letter
May’s response to Steve Baker’s resignation letter Photograph: No 10

Steve Baker's resignation letter

Number 10 has released the resignation letter from Steve Baker, the Brexit minister.

It is noticeably less critical than David Davis’s letter. (See 8.10am.)

Steve Baker’s resignation letter
Steve Baker’s resignation letter Photograph: No 10

The Ukip leader Gerard Batten has written an open letter saying Theresa May should resign, my colleague Peter Walker reports.

European commission says Davis's resignation won't affect Brexit talks

Margaritis Schinas, the European commission’s chief spokesman, told journalists at his morning briefing this morning that the resignation of David Davis would not affect the Brexit talks.

Asked if it was a problem, he replied: “Not for us. We are here to work.”

As the Press Association reports, Schinas said the commission did “not have a specific comment” about the resignation and refused to be drawn when asked to pay tribute to the outgoing cabinet minister.

He said the commission was “available 24/7”, including over the summer, to discuss Brexit. He added:

In this house it is very clear that our position has always been very cool. We avoided positioning the commission in terms of psychological elements - concern, enthusiasm, disappointment and so on. We are here to do a job.

Margaritis Schinas
Margaritis Schinas Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

No 10 is in full, “Everything is completely normal” mode today, with any suggestions of future turmoil dismissed. Asked if Theresa May had spoken to Boris Johnson in the last 24 hours, the PM’s spokesman said: “Not that I am aware of.”

On cabinet unity, the line was:

The government agreed to the position on Friday. The prime minister looks forward to working with Dominic Raab on delivering Brexit... We’ve set out our position and it’s is now the EU’s turn to move.

There was, however, no answer on whether May might have to give way some more in response to EU demands. The only response to such queries was: “That’s our position.”

10 Downing Street
10 Downing Street Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

Some Tory Brexiters are telling journalist they don’t think Dominic Raab should have accepted David Davis’s job.

This is from Sky’s Beth Rigby.

And this is from the FT’s Laura Hughes.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, head of hard Brexit backbench contingent, has said David Davis’s resignation will buoy feelings among Tory MPs who hope to object to the Chequers plan. He told Sky News:

What he has done is crucially important. If David Davis was going along with what was agreed at Chequers it was quite hard for Brexiteers like me to point out what seemed to be its obvious failings, because if it was supported by the people most directly involved, surely they knew more than we did and there must be something in it that I had missed. It’s now quite clear that this is not the case.

Rees-Mogg was scathing about May’s position, saying:

The problem with Chequers is it’s not a U-turn, it’s a handbrake turn … Chequers is not really leaving the European Union ... She has advanced backwards. She has advanced not to have Brexit.

Rees-Mogg also indicated he felt May had broken her word: “What you are saying is that the prime minister is inconsistent with her promises, and that’s a very bad position for a political party to be in.”

Saying he wanted a Canada-style trade deal, Rees-Mogg said May might now be reliant on Labour votes to get her plan through the Commons:

It’s fascinating that the prime minister’s chief of staff is going to brief Labour members, because I think that if the prime minister wants to get Chequers through she will be dependent on socialist votes. That’s always possible. It’s very, very difficult territory for somebody to run a government on the back of opposition support.

Asked if he would go for the Tory leadership if May was ousted, Rees-Mogg gave something of a classic non-denial. He said:

My sole ambition is that we get Brexit. It is not about me personally – that is a complete distraction.

Pressed on it, he said only: “There isn’t a vacancy.”

Steve Baker says No 10's anti-Brexiter briefing last week was 'childish nonsense'

On the Daily Politics Steve Baker, the former Brexit minister, said he was “absolutely furious” about the hostile briefing coming out of Number 10 that was aimed at Brexiters on Friday morning. He said it was “childish nonsense”.

Asked who was responsible, Baker said he did not want to name name.

Baker was referring to the ‘We’ve got the number for a taxi firm if they want to quit’ briefing that was around on Friday morning. The best account was in Jack Blanchard’s London Playbook briefing.

Updated

The leaders of Ireland and Austria have welcomed Theresa May’s new Brexit plan as a step forward but said many questions remained to be answered in the negotiations ahead.

The Austrian chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, is currently on the old Dublin-Belfast border crossing to hear about cross-border co-operation. Speaking on arrival in Dublin he said that it was positive that Britain had now presented its position after May secured cabinet agreement on Friday but that there were still many open questions.

The taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, said negotiators could be more optimistic than they were a week ago but reiterated the EU’s position that the UK could not cherry pick parts of the single market with a “goods only” approach. He said:

We continue to have some concerns about the workability of the UK’s customs proposals. The position from the EU, and a position I support, is that you are either in the single market or you’re not.

These are from ITV’s Robert Peston.

Steve Baker says Brexit department was 'blindsided' by May's plans

Steve Baker, who resigned as David Davis’s depuy at the Brexit department, is on the Daily Politics now. He says he quit because he thinks Theresa May’s Brexit plan will not give parliament enough freedom to reject EU laws.

Asked why he did not know in advance that this is what May was proposing, Baker said that Number 10 had changed its plans at the last minute. He said the Brexit department had been assuming that different plans would go into the white paper. He said:

We’ve all been blindsided by this policy.

But he also says he is not backing a challenge to Theresa May. He says his message to Tory MPs is: “Don’t put in letters [to the chair of the 1922 committee.]

The departure of David Davis would not have a big impact on Brexit negotiations, EU sources said. But the EU will be worried that his resignation means Theresa May’s hard-won Chequers compromise could fall apart, because it suggests the UK’s internal negotiations are not finished.

Responding to the news, one senior EU diplomat said it meant “no big change” because Davis “wasn’t really present recently”, as Olly Robbins, the prime minister’s Europe advisor, had been doing the negotiations. The domestic implications for Theresa May are still unclear, the source said, adding “I hope she has a good plan”.

The former Brexit secretary had only attended four hours of talks since the start of the year, and at one point went three months without meeting the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier in Brussels.

But another source downplayed the resignation, saying diplomats were awaiting the full-version of the plan, in a Brexit white paper expected on Thursday. “It is important that the meeting in Chequers has taken place and the cabinet has defined its position.”

The European commission HQ.
The European commission HQ. Photograph: Olivier Hoslet/EPA

The Conservative Brexiter Andrew Bridgen told BBC Radio 5 Live that, if Theresa May did not change her Brexit policy, he would back a no confidence motion in her. He said:

I hope we are going to have a U turn by the prime minister today, otherwise she’s going to be in serious trouble ...

I have no confidence in that policy. If that is maintained by the prime minister as her policy, then I would have no confidence in the prime minister. I think there’s a large number of my colleagues will have that same view.

Asked if that meant 48 Tories (15% of the parliamentary party) would back a no confidence vote (the number who need to write to the chair of the Conservative 1922 committee asking for a no confidence vote for one to go ahead), Bridgen replied: “Very possibly”.

On currency markets, the pound has shrugged off David Davis’ resignation following a brief dip. It has hit a three-week high, trading nearly 0.4% higher against the dollar at $1.3336, and has been steady against the euro.

Chris Scicluna at Daiwa Capital Markets said: “Sterling remains broadly stable this morning, and firmer than it was ahead of the Cabinet agreement last Friday.”

Joshua Mahony, market analyst at online trading firm IG, said:

Brexit concerns are back at the top of the agenda, following last week’s meeting at Chequers, culminating in yesterday’s resignation from David Davis. While markets should be worried by the added uncertainty of losing the Brexit secretary just eight months before the UK leaves the EU, there is a feeling that the UK is moving towards a business-friendly softer Brexit. The BCC has voiced its concerns over the impact of a potential rate rise, with companies clearly in limbo ahead of an uncertain Brexit. However, while companies and individuals may not too keen on a Bank of England rate rise, markets are clearly warming to the idea, with sterling-dollar rising to a three-week high, amid a wider dollar selloff.

Markets are currently pricing in an 80% chance of a BoE rate rise in less than a months’ time, yet with the UK GDP figure due out tomorrow morning, we could see some sterling volatility to come this week.

Raab's appointment - Snap analysis

Here are some snap thoughts on Dominic Raab’s appointment as Brexit secretary.

1 - Dominic Raab is a prominent Brexiter, and so Theresa May is continuing with the principle that has generally governed her emergency cabinet reshuffles of “like-for-like” replacement of remainers and leavers. (In that respect, the UK increasingly resembles one of those foreign states where posts in government are divided up amongst religious sects.) Raab played a leading role in the Vote Leave campaign. But he is generally seen as one of the more pragmatic and cerebral Brexiters, and not a hardline ideologue.

2 - The Raab appointment could be seen as a snub to Michael Gove. Gove would have been the obvious Brexiter to replace David Davis, and Gove might have been seen as someone who could win around some of the hardline, European Research Group Tories. But May sacked Gove from the cabinet when she became PM and, although she brought him back, she probably does not fully trust him. And she is wise not to; he has designs on her job.

3 - This move shows May is serious about about bringing new talent into the cabinet. Raab was disappointed not to get a cabinet job at the last reshuffle (some Conservative-supporting journalists had been briefed that he was a dead-cert for a cabinet job). At the end of last week Number 10 included Raab among a list of names of ministers who they said might replace anyone who chose to resign. The briefing was intended to tell cabinet Brexiters that they were expendable, and could be easily replaced. But it was also a means of encouraging junior ministers to stay loyal.

4 - This could be a sign that Theresa May is open to extending the Brexit transition. Number 10 has repeatedly ruled it out. But in Brussels it is widely assumed that the transition will have to be extended, and in an interview with Nick Robinson for his Political Thinking podcast at the end of last week, Raab accepted that implementing Brexit might have to take “more time”.

(The interview is well worth listening to. For anyone who assumers that Brexiters are anti-immigrant, Raab points out that he is the son of a Czech refugee and he is married to a Brazilian. Raab worked as Davis’s chief of staff at one point. But he also worked for Dominic Grieve, the one of the Conservative party’s leading remainers.)

5 - Yet again, housing policy has taken a back seat. Housing is supposed to be one of the government’s priorities. But Raab was in the job for just six months, and his replacement will be the eighth housing minister since 2010. This is from the Times’ Tom Knowles.

And this is from the Home Builders Federation’s David O’Leary.

Updated

Dominic Raab appointed new Brexit secretary

Dominic Raab, the housing minister, is the new Brexit secretary, Number 10 has announced.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Conservative backbencher and chair of the pro-Brexit European Research Group, has just told Sky news that the fact that No 10 is briefing Labour MPs on Theresa May’s Brexit policy (see 9.29am) suggests that May thinks she will have to rely on “socialist votes” to get her plan through parliament.

This is from the Sun’s Brussels correspondent Nick Gutteridge.

Simon Hart, a remain-voting Conservative MP, says David Davis did not achieve much as Brexit secretary. He says the situation is now a “shit show”.

David Henig, a trade policy expert and director of the UK Trade Policy Project, has posted a good Twitter thread on what the David Davis resignation means. It starts here.

On the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire show the Conservative MP Marcus Fysh described Theresa May’s Brexit policy as “an absolute stinker” and refused to say he had confidence in her as prime minister.

Sky’s Tom Rayner has some footage of Suella Braverman, the Brexit minister, with Robbie Gibb, the Number 10 communications director, this morning.

This is from my colleague Jessica Elgot, referring to the meeting mentioned earlier. (See 9.29am.)

Scottish and Welsh first minister both say government in 'chaos'

This is from Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP first minister of Scotland.

And this is from Carwyn Jones, the Labour first minister of Wales.

This is from HuffPost’s Owen Bennett.

David Davis's Today interview - Summary

Here are the main points from David Davis’s Today interview.

  • Davis, the former Brexit secretary, told Theresa May’s claim that her deal would return power to the House of Commons was “illusory”. That was because, in practice, the Commons would have little option but to accept EU regulations on goods, he said. (See 8.22am.)

This is painting something as returning sovereignty, returning control, to the House of Commons, when in practice it actually isn’t doing so.

  • He said, under May’s plan, if the UK did diverge from EU regulations on goods, the Northern Ireland backstop would be triggered. That would amount to a “sword of Damocles” hanging over the government, he said. (See 8.22am.)
  • He said he resigned because it would not have been “plausible” for him to defend a Brexit policy he did not believe in. He said:

In my view, this policy has got a number of weaknesses. I would be front and centre in delivering this policy, explaining it to the House, persuading the House it is right, and then going out and delivering it with the EU.

Frankly, just as it was known what the policy was, it was also known I had concerns about it. It would not have been a plausible thing to do and I wouldn’t have done a good job at it.

  • He said he did not resign at the cabinet meeting on Friday because he wanted to consult his local Conservative association and others first. “I was very clear on Friday and I took two days to think through some, for me, very important decisions,” he said.
  • He said he did not want his resignation to lead to Theresa May facing a leadership challenge. Asked if his resignation would be a “rallying call” to those opposed to her, he said: “I hope not.” Asked if she could survive, he said she could.

I won’t be encouraging people to do that [challenge May]. I think it’s the wrong thing to do.

Davis said he would not stand against May herself. If he had wanted to challenge her, he would have done so just after the election, he said. But he did not; he supported her.

  • He claimed his resignation could strengthen May’s Brexit negotiating position.

She has got to have a Brexit secretary who will deliver on her strategy. That is not weakening, that is actually enhancing the effectiveness of the strategy.

  • He said the government was making too many concessions to the EU.

It seems to me we are giving too much away too easily and that’s a dangerous strategy at this time. Hopefully we will resist very strongly any attempt to get any further concessions from us on this, because I think this further than we should have gone already.

This is from the Times’ Sam Coates.

This may be the first formal acknowledgement from Number 10 that Theresa May will eventually need Labour votes if she wants parliament to approve her Brexit deal.

According to the Press Association, the Brexit department does not actually know whether Suella Braverman has resigned or not as a Brexit minister at the moment.

Last night it was reported that she had quit with David Davis and Steve Baker, her fellow Brexit ministers. (See 00.51am.) Braverman (Suella Fernandes until she married) was Jacob Rees-Mogg’s predecessor as chair of the European Research Group, and is a very hardline Brexiter.

But this morning it is being said she is staying. This is from Sky’s Beth Rigby.

Updated

Rees-Mogg says no confidence vote in May not 'immediately' in the offing

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Conservative MP who chairs the pro-Brexit European Reseach Group, is hosting his LBC phone-in this morning. He has just said he does not think a no confidence vote in Theresa May is “immediately” in the offing. He said:

I don’t think a no-confidence vote is immediately in the offing.

I think what the prime minister needs to do is give up on the Chequers proposals which, David Davis has pointed out in his resignation letter, don’t actually deliver Brexit.

You’ll note that hint of menace in the word “immediately”. He seems to be implying that, if Theresa May does not drop her Chequers plan, there could be a leadership challenge.

Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer told the Today programme earlier that David Davis’s resignation was a “huge blow” to the prime minister and made a no-deal Brexit more likely. He told Today:

The Brexit secretary has resigned, effectively voting no-confidence in the prime minister and that plunges her into further chaos ... It exposes what has been the heart of the problem all along which is a huge division in the cabinet between those that want to stay economically close to the EU and those that want to rip up the economic model we’ve been operating for decades.

Starmer rejected the suggestion that the Chequers agreement amounted to Labour policy on Brexit. He said:

Look at the differences: we have argued for a comprehensive customs union with the EU. The prime minister has come up with a facilitated customs agreement that works on the basis that you can distinguish at the border goods that are going to stay in the UK and those that are going to go beyond to the EU. Businesses and everybody knows that is unworkable. It is dual system is a bureaucratic nightmare.

Labour plans to force a vote on the customs bill next week, Starmer said.

We have amendments down saying that the negotiation should seek to keep us in a customs union with the EU.

Asked why Labour wasn’t calling for a second referendum, Starmer said:

At the moment we are still in the middle of a negotiation so there is nothing to actually have a second referendum about. We have focused on getting a vote in parliament in the autumn on the deal. That’s the first thing that needs to happen.

We are not calling for a referendum. There needs to be a meaningful vote in parliament. If the article 50 deal is voted down or worse, there is simply no deal, and today makes that more likely, then I’ve always said we need to have all options on the table as to what we do next. But parliament must decide what happens in those circumstances. We are not at that stage but we do need to realise how serious today’s developments are.

Here are some Labour figures responding to David Davis’s Today interview.

From Andrew Adonis, the former cabinet minister

From Claude Moraes MEP

From David Lammy, the former minister

From Andy Slaughter MP

The Labour-led Welsh government has put out a statement saying David Davis’s resignation shows the government is “in complete disarray”.

The FT’s Kate Allen says there is a quite a difference in how commentators are assessing the impact of David Davis’s resignation and how the markets are reading it.

Allen was responding to this tweet.

Updated

The interview is over. In the post-match interview analysis on the Today programme, Nick Robinson says it is up to David Davis to decide if he wants to make a Geoffrey Howe-style resignation speech in the Commons. Robinson says Davis, who is still in the studio, is giving him “a look” which signals that he is not saying.

A David Davis resignation speech in the Commons would be quite dramatic, but it would not be like Howe’s, which was intended to provoke a leadership challenge. Davis has just said, very clearly, that that is not his intention. (See 8.28am.)

Davis says he wants May to stay as prime minister

Q: Are you saying you don’t expect the policy to change as a result of your resignation?

Davis says, if nothing else, it will put pressure on May not to make further concession.

Q: Can May survive this?

Yes, says Davis.

He says he does not want to see her replaced.

I like [May]. She is a good prime minister.

Davis says, if May has a Brexit secretary who supports her strategy, that will strengthen her strategy.

He says he will not be encouraging people to challenge May’s leadership.

He says he would not stand against her.

If he had wanted to do that, he would have acted after the election. But he did not. He flew down from Yorkshire in the middle of the night to support her.

  • Davis says he wants May to stay as prime minister.
  • He rules out standing against her.

Davis says it is “very important” May appoints a new Brexit secretary who believes in May’s strategy.

Davis says May always made it clear to him when he took the job that she would be in charge of the Brexit negotiations ultimately.

He says the EU will now demand further concessions.

It seems to me we are giving too much away too easily.

Q: What will happen next?

Davis says he thinks there might not be a deal by October. There could be an emergency EU summit in November. That is what happens in EU negotiations, he says. He says they go to the wire.

Davis says claim PM’s plan will return power to parliament is “illusory”

Q: What did you disagree with?

Davis says the plan for a common rulebook with the EU on goods means that it will be very, very difficult for the UK not to agree with what the EU is doing. Final decisions will be taken by the European court of justice. And if the UK decides it does not want to along with EU rules, the Northern Ireland backstop could be triggered. That would be a “sword of Damocles”.

He says any power parliament will have will be “illusory”.

This is painted as returning power back to the House of Commons. In practice, it is not doing so.

  • Davis says the claim the PM’s plan will return power to parliament is “illusory”.
  • He says, if UK diverges from EU rules on goods, the Northern Ireland backstop would kick in. That would amount to a “sword of Damocles” hanging over the UK.

Updated

Davis says in any cabinet, there will be 10% or 20% of things the government is doing that a minister does not agree with.

But he says in this case the government is doing something he disagrees with in an area central to his responsibility.

Davis says it would not have been plausible for him to remain as Brexit secretary and promote May’s policy

Davis says he would have to have been “front and centre” explaining Theresa May’s country.

That would not have been plausible given the reservations he has, he says.

He says the next Brexit secretary has to be someone who believes in the policy.

He says his letter to the PM said he hoped that her strategy was right.

  • Davis says it would not have been plausible for him to remain as Brexit secretary and promote May’s policy.

He says he would have had to stay and promote a policy that he does not think will work.

Davis says he did not resign on Friday because he wanted to consult his local association first

Q: On Friday you agreed to support Theresa May’s plan. Last night you resigned. What happened in between?

Davis says on Friday his opening was remark was: “Prime minister, I’m going to be the odd man out on this.”

Q: But you supported her?

Davis questions this. There was collective cabinet responsibility, he says. But after the cabinet meeting he talked to his local association. That is what Conservatives do, he says. And he spoke to his wife.

Q: You could have talked to them before.

Davis says he could not talk to his association chair about forthcoming cabinet business.

Resigning was a matter that required very careful thought, he says.

This is the sort of thing you have to think through carefully and do properly.

Rushing out of a cabinet meeting, as Michael Heseltine did, would not have been right, he says.

  • Davis says he did not resign on Friday because he wanted to consult his local association first.

David Davis's Today interview

John Humphrys is interviewing David Davis on Today.

He starts by quoting from Davis’s resignation letter.

David Davis's resignation letter

Here is an easier-to-read version of David Davis’s resignation letter.

Dear Prime Minister

As you know there have been a significant number of occasions in the last year or so on which I have disagreed with the Number 10 policy line, ranging from accepting the Commission’s sequencing of negotiations through to the language on Northern Ireland in the December Joint Report. At each stage I have accepted collective responsibility because it is part of my task to find workable compromises, and because I considered it was still possible to deliver on the mandate of the referendum, and on our manifesto commitment to leave the Customs Union and the Single Market.

I am afraid that I think the current trend of policy and tactics is making that look less and less likely. Whether it is the progressive dilution of what I thought was a firm Chequers agreement in February on right to diverge, or the unnecessary delays of the start of the White Paper, or the presentation of a backstop proposal that omitted the strict conditions that I requested and believed that we had agreed, the general direction of policy will leave us in at best a weak negotiating position, and possibly an inescapable one.

The Cabinet decision on Friday crystallised this problem. In my view the inevitable consequence of the proposed policies will be to make the supposed control by Parliament illusory rather than real. As I said at Cabinet, the “common rule book” policy hands control of large swathes of our economy to the EU and is certainly not returning control of our laws in any real sense.

I am also unpersuaded that our negotiating approach will not just lead to further demands for concessions.

Of course this is a complex area of judgement and it is possible that you are right and I am wrong. However, even in that event it seems to me that the national interest requires a Secretary of State in my Department that is an enthusiastic believer in your approach, and not merely a reluctant conscript. While I have been grateful to you for the opportunity to serve, it is with great regret that I tender my resignation from the Cabinet with immediate effect.

Yours ever,

David Davis

Updated

Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Matthew Weaver.

David Davis is about to give an interview to John Humphrys on Today.

To recap, here is our main story about Davis’s resignation.

And here is the text of David Davis’s resignation letter.

Updated

Who is in the running as the new Brexit secretary?

Michael Gove

The environment secretary is a true Brexit-believer but one who spoke passionately in favour of the prime minister’s Chequers plan on Friday, and was sent out to bat for it on the airwaves on Sunday. He is a member of the inner cabinet Brexit sub-committee and has a firm grasp of the detail. It would give him a platform for a future leadership challenge but there has long been a lack of trust between Gove and May, dating back to her days at the Home Office when back-and-forth briefing wars forced out her aide Fiona Hill.

David Lidington

The PM may choose to appoint a loyalist like Lidington, who is her de-facto deputy at the cabinet office. Number 10 has been leading the key decision-making on Brexit ever since Oliver Robbins, formerly Davis’ chief advisor, moved over to Downing Street. Putting Lidington in charge would probably enrage leavers but be a formal declaration that the centre of power has formally moved from DExEu’s Number 9 Downing Street headquarters next door to Number 10.

New generation

Downing Street was briefing ahead of the Chequers’ summit that there was “a new generation” of younger, enthusiastic (and Brexit-backing MPs) ready to take ministers’ places round the cabinet table if they resigned. Housing minister Dominic Raab, DCLG junior minister Rishi Sunak and DWP Kit Malthouse were among the names mentioned. It would be an enormous leap from a junior ministerial position to become Brexit secretary, however, but May could bring in a new generation Brexiter into another department if Gove or Lidington get the nod.

There are mixed signals on when Theresa May plans to appoint a new Brexit secretary.

Another Brexiter MP has also expressed backing for Davis. Andrew Bridgen said the former Brexit secretary had done “absolutely the right thing” in resigning.

Spekaing to ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Bridgen said: “I take my hat off to him. I also salute his two deputies who’ve also resigned - Steve Baker and Suella Braverman - that’s basically cleared out the whole of the Exiting the European Union department.

“I think (with) the now-discredited Chequers agreement the prime minister is going to have to have a complete re-think on this. There’s no way she’s going to get that proposal through Parliament. Not even through the government benches.”

Bernard Jenkin
Bernard Jenkin Photograph: Chris McAndrew/UK Parliament/PA

Jenkin stopped just short of calling for Theresa May to go, but he was scathing of her Brexit plan and suggested she was intent on reversing the result of the referendum.

He said: “The establishment and the government is in the grip of remainers. And they seem to refuse to accept the EU referendum. They have deliberately extended the uncertainty for as long as possible and that is now hitting investment.

“They have never pushed back on any of the guidelines that the EU has published. So there has not really been any negotiation, there’s only been submission.

“What we have here is the elected politicians trying to overturn the result of the referendum with the support of the European Union.”

Jenkin added:

There has been a massive haemorrhage of trust in the last few days because in all my meetings with the prime minister, I never expected this to be the result. And I never expected the vicious briefing against Eurosceptics in the cabinet to take place as it has done.

There needs to be a rebuilding of trust and I think that trust can only be rebuilt on the basis of the policy that was reflected in Mrs May’s original speeches, not in this hybrid proposal ... All the way through in this document there is a specific reference to the European Court of Justice. So if our courts or our parliament deviates from what the European Court of Justice and the Commission wants, it says there will be consequences.

So clearly we going to have to carry on being a kind of fax democracy which is the worst of all possible worlds.

This isn’t cabinet government and if the prime minister thinks she has consent and support from every member of her cabinet she is deluding herself, as we have just seen.

He added that if May did not reform her Brexit plan “I fear for our country and I fear for this party.”

The Leave backing backbencher Bernard Jenkin has backed Davis, saying he was left with no choice. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he complained of “vicious briefing” against Brexiter ministers.

“The prime minister needs to take the policy off the table”, he said.

As Tim Shipman, political editor of the Sunday Times, points out, only last week Jenkin was urging MPs to back Theresa May.

Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has tweeted: “The chequers unity didn’t
last long. This UK government is in utter chaos and ebbing authority by the day.
What a shambles.” That’s just what the Mirror said.

Theresa May is expected to reshuffle her cabinet very quickly indeed, with a Downing Street source saying it is likely to begin some time after 9am. The source said: “We have a plan agreed at Chequers, as the PM says in her letter to DD [David Davis], and we are moving forward.”

The speed of the reshuffle indicates May and her team had such an eventuality in mind, and were ready to respond.

Pro-leave Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns, who has cheered Davis’s resignation and has called for more ministers to go, seems to have not got much sleep overnight. A long day looms:

Carolyn Fairbairn, the director general of the CBI, has described the resignation as a “blow”, pointing out that business liked certainty, and the Chequers proposals started to look something like certainty.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “That inability to take decisions over several months had become a huge challenge in terms of uncertainty.”

David Davis will be speaking to the Today programme at 8.10am.

The Remain side is starting to make its voice heard now. Conservative MP Anna Soubry has said May’s Brexit plan was “far from perfect” but represented “grown-up steps”.
“Not the time for egos, grandstanding and blind ideology (& interestingly no Brexit plan of their own..) it is time to put the interests of our country first & foremost,” she tweeted. She did not mention Davis or his resignation explicitly.

Jacob Rees-Mogg has been the most prominent pro-Brexit MP to speak and has called for a change in May’s Brexit vision, rather than a change of leadership. Boris Johnson has stayed silent thus far, though he is scheduled to appear at a western Balkans summit in London this afternoon.

The pound lost earlier gains after news of Davis’s resignation emerged and was effectively flat at $1.330. Sterling had climbed to $1.3328 earlier in the session, its highest since June 14.

Yukio Ishizuki, senior currency strategist at Daiwa Securities in Tokyo, said: “If negotiations with the European Union do not progress, there is the possibility of a hard Brexit, so I think it would become a reason to sell.

“On the other hand, there is also the possibility negotiations will progress after the minister is changed ... and the pound could be rapidly bought back.”

Summary

  • David Davis, the UK’s Brexit secretary, has resigned from the cabinet following Friday’s summit at Chequers.
  • In his resignation letter he blamed the “dilution” of what he said was a firm Chequers agreement, delays to the White Paper, and omissions from the “backstop” customs proposal that would leave the UK in a “weak negotiating position” at best. He says his role requires an “enthusiastic believer” in May’s approach rather than a “reluctant conscript”.
  • He was followed by deputy, Steve Baker, and another Brexit minister Suella Braverman.
  • Theresa May responded with a letter voicing her sorrow that he is leaving just eight months before the UK’s official withdrawal from the EU. She said she disagreed with his characterisation of what was agreed at Chequers on Friday, saying powers would be returned to the UK from Brussels and that MPs would get to vote on areas where the idea of a “common rulebook” with the EU would be applied.
  • Vocal pro-Brexit MPs welcomed Davis’s move, with Andrea Jenkyns saying the next move was to make this a “game changer for Brexit” and calling for Boris Johnson to act. Nigel Farage has joined in the praise, calling May “duplicitous”.
  • Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the pro-Brexit European Research Group faction, said the prime minister “would be well advised to reconsider” the Brexit vision she believed she had secured at Friday’s Cabinet summit at Chequers.
  • Jeremy Corbyn said the resignation showed the prime minister had no authority left and was incapable of delivering Brexit.

So with murmurings of no-confidence votes, what is the process in the event of a leadership contest?

First, 15% of Conservative MPs must write to Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 committee. In this parliament that means 48 MPs. He must then call a vote of no confidence. I should say at this point that last night many of May’s supporters in the parliamentary party believe she could win any such vote.

And here comes the Guardian front page, which also takes in the extraordinary events in Thailand and Salisbury.

Guardian front page, Monday 9 July 2018
Photograph: Guardian

The Times puts it front and centre, with three pages inside too.

Times front page Monday 9 July 2018

Telegraph says what everyone is wondering.

Telegraph p1 Monday 9 July 2018

Mirror puts it on page two, not even a treasured right-hand page.

Mirror page 2 Monday 9 July 2018

Sun gives it maybe a five out of 10.

Sun front page Monday 9 July 2018

Here are the UK front pages we have gathered so far. Guardian, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Daily Telegraph, and the Sun.

Mail front page, Monday 9 July 2018

The shadow foreign secretary builds on the growing theme of a government in chaos.

Laurence Robertson said Davis had taken “the only genuine option available to him”, adding that “rather than just appoint someone else to replace him, the PM needs to recognise that his resignation represents the views of many Conservative MPs, activists and voters.”

Jacob Rees-Mogg has told Reuters that Davis’s resignation was “crucially important” because it showed the extent of concerns about the Chequers agreement. “If the Brexit secretary could not support them they cannot genuinely be delivering Brexit,” he said.

A potential collector’s item here:

Summary

  • David Davis, the UK’s Brexit secretary, has resigned from the cabinet following Friday’s summit at Chequers.
  • In his resignation letter he blamed the “dilution” of what he said was a firm Chequers agreement, delays to the White Paper, and omissions from the “backstop” customs proposal that would leave the UK in a “weak negotiating position” at best. He says his role requires an “enthusiastic believer” in May’s approach rather than a “reluctant conscript”.
  • He was followed by deputy, Steve Baker, and another Brexit minister Suella Braverman.
  • Theresa May responded with a letter voicing her sorrow that he is leaving just eight months before the UK’s official withdrawal from the EU. She said she disagreed with his characterisation of what was agreed at Chequers on Friday, saying powers would be returned to the UK from Brussels and that MPs would get to vote on areas where the idea of a “common rulebook” with the EU would be applied.
  • Vocal pro-Brexit MPs welcomed Davis’s move, with Andrea Jenkyns saying the next move was to make this a “game changer for Brexit” and calling for Boris Johnson to act.
  • Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the pro-Brexit European Research Group faction, said the prime minister “would be well advised to reconsider” the Brexit vision she believed she had secured at Friday’s Cabinet summit at Chequers.

Andrea Leadsom has written a comment piece urging people to back the vision hammered out at Chequers. But it seems it’s back to square one.

“With the prime minister’s specific reassurances to me, around the UK parliament having a say on any tweaks to trade rules, I have given her my backing. Because the fact is, getting the cabinet to agree is one thing. Getting the EU to agree is quite another.”

Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the powerful European Research Group faction within the Tory ranks, earlier told BBC Radio 5 Live that Davis’s resignation should force May to reconsider her approach.
“And I think without David Davis there, without his imprimatur, it will be very difficult for them [May’s Brexit proposals] to get the support of Conservative MPs and therefore the prime minister would be well advised to reconsider them.”

The triple resignation throws the spotlight onto who will fill Davis’s seat, and the next moves for the likes of Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Jacob Rees-Mogg among others.

Johnson apparently spoke “passionately” in favour of making May’s soft Brexit deal work after initially saying its defenders were “polishing a turd”. Whichever path he choses now, his stock has suffered after failing to resign over the Heathrow vote and his “fuck business” Brexit outburst.

Gove has been described by Downing Street insiders as “instrumental” in persuading leave cabinet ministers to back May’s plan. But that achievement has now vanished.

Pro-Brexit MPs feeling disillusioned after Chequers might now corral even more closely around Rees-Mogg.

Time will tell.

David Davis tops the Guardian’s late edition to cap off a day of extraordinary news.

Guardian front page, Monday 9 July 2018

The Times calls it the “worst crisis since she [Theresa May] lost her government majority”. That happened just over a year ago but may feel for some much longer than that.

Davis was one of three leading pro-Brexit ministers brought back into government by May. Foreign secretary Boris Johnson and trade minister Liam Fox joined him to make up “the three Brexiteers”. No public word yet from either Johnson or Fox on Sunday night’s revelations.

David Davis threatening to resign has cropped up in political reporting repeatedly since he took up his post in 2016. This from last month:

This report by Pippa Crerar gives a sense of the anger, mounting to the point of talk of a vote of no confidence.

Since Friday, several Tory MPs were said to have added their names to a list supporting a vote of no confidence, although senior party sources indicated that they did not expect them to reach the 48 required.

Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns said she would “100%” submit a letter to the backbench 1922 committee to trigger a contest. “I’d put the letter in if these red lines were severely watered down and we had one foot in, one foot out,” she said.

Andrew Bridgen, MP for North West Leicestershire, added: “I can’t support the offer which emerged at Chequers – I think it’s a breach of the red lines … Obviously if the government and the prime minister continue to support that very poor offer then I won’t have any confidence in [them].”

One senior pro-Brexit source told the Guardian: “It’s terminal. We think this is going to lead to a bigger split than Maastricht, on a more serious issue, with a smaller majority, and it’s not Tony Blair that lies on the other side of all of this, it’s Jeremy Corbyn. We think it’s an absolute disaster.”

To give you an idea of the week ahead (and beyond a little bit):

  • May was originally expected to make a statement on Monday morning, urging one and all to unite behind her Brexit plans, saying: “This is the right Brexit.” Previously released excerpts did sagaciously refer to “robust views echoing round the cabinet table as they have on breakfast tables up and down our country”. That statement might now take a different flavour.
  • Further Whitehall briefings on the Chequers plan were also scheduled for Monday morning.
  • The accompanying White Paper is due to be published on Thursday.
  • Pro-Brexit Donald Trump flies to the UK on Thursday.
  • The House of Commons is scheduled to go into recess a week on Friday, aka 20 July.

The atmosphere among some in the Tory party can reasonably be said to be febrile, and possibly also World Cup-related.

Theresa May’s Chequers blueprint has been savaged by business leaders and prominent Leavers over the weekend, building up to the spectacular events of Sunday night. As Toby Helm and Jennifer Rankin reported, more than 100 entrepreneurs and founders of UK businesses dismissed it as unworkable. The major issue is the new “facilitated customs arrangement” that would ideally remove the need for a hard border in Ireland, and the creation of a UK-EU free trade area, in which the UK would abide by a “common rule book” of EU regulations.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Tory MP and leader of the European Research Group (ERG) of hardline Brexiters, questioned whether signing up to elements of the EU rulebook would amount to Brexit at all, adding that “it is possible that this deal is worse” than a “no-deal” Brexit.

Labour says May should resign

This is from John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor

Updated

And May’s lengthier response. In the interests of balance, I should point out that the prime minister does devote half a page to praising Davis for, among other things, his “expertise and counsel” and his work steering through parliament “some of the most important legislation for generations”.

Here is a hopefully easy-to-read version of David Davis’s letter of resignation:

Foreign secretary Boris Johnson has been awfully quiet as far as I’m aware.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson (left) and Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union David Davis.

Summary

  • David Davis, the UK’s Brexit secretary, has resigned from the cabinet following Friday’s summit at Chequers.
  • In his resignation letter he blames the “dilution” of what he said was a firm Chequers agreement, delays to the White Paper, and omissions from the “backstop” customs proposal that will at best leave the UK in a “weak negotiating position”.
  • He was followed by deputy, Steve Baker, and another Brexit minister Suella Braverman.
  • Theresa May has responded to his letter and voiced her sorrow that he is leaving just eight months before the UK’s official withdrawal from the EU. She says she disagrees with his characterisation of what was agreed at Chequers on Friday, saying powers would be returned from Brussels and that MPs would get to vote on where the idea of a “common rulebook” with the EU would be applied.
  • Vocal pro-Brexit MPs have welcomed Davis’s move, with Andrea Jenkyns saying the next move was to make this a “game changer for Brexit”.

Davis frequently suggests No 10 has in effect agreed one thing and done another.

Whether it is the progressive dilution of what I thought was a firm Chequers agreement In February on right to diverge, or the unnecessary delays of the start of the White Paper, or the presentation of a backstop proposal that omitted the strict conditions that I requested and believed that we had agreed, the general direction of policy will leave us in at best a weak negotiating position, and possibly an inescapable one.

Some more choice words from Davis’s resignation letter. He points out that he has disagreed with No 10 “on a significant number of occasions in the last year or so” but continued under the obligation of collective ministerial responsibility in the hope of delivering the Brexit referendum mandate. “I am afraid that I think the current trend of policy and tactics is making that look less and less likely.”

Alternatively, you can all stay here with me.

May takes particular issue with Davis’s suggestions that the “inevitable consequence of the proposed policies will be to make the supposed control by parliament illusory rather than real”. She says the deal will “undoubtedly” mean the returning of powers from Brussels to the UK and that MPs will get to vote on the areas where the UK chooses to apply the “common rulebook” with the EU.

Theresa May's response

Theresa May has replied to David Davis’s somewhat terse letter of resignation. Over two-and-a-half pages she sets out the case for her vision of Brexit and says she is sorry to hear of his resignation when so much progress has been made towards a “smooth and successful Brexit” and given there are just eight months before withdrawal from the EU.

Davis rejects "weak" Brexit plan in resignation letter

Explosive stuff.

Davis says he could not be a “reluctant conscript” in selling the PM’s Brexit deal in his resignation letter.

He does add:

Of course this is a complex area of judgement and it is possible that you are right and I am wrong.

We will see.

Three of the five Brexit ministers have resigned: David Davis, Steve Baker and Suella Braverman.

It’s hard to say what all this means just yet, but Theresa May’s former policy chief says the chance of a no deal Brexit scenario “just got a lot more likely”.

But Laura Kuenssberg, who has gone back to bed, says number 10 might take charge of Brexit negotiations from now on.

Updated

Suella Braverman resigns

Suella Braverman, another Brexit minister, has also resigned. That makes three-fifths of the Department for Exiting the European Union.

Updated

There had been rumours that the foreign secretary was going to release a statement at some point on Monday. Not so, according to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

But he will be holding a press conference as part of the Western Balkans summit.

Theresa May has a big day ahead of her. She is set to meet the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers on Monday evening.

Meanwhile, Sky’s Lewis Goodall has spoken to Jacob Rees-Mogg, who has welcomed Davis’ resignation.

Mogg says:

If the Brexit secretary cannot support them they cannot be very good proposals

Updated

Steve Baker resigns

David Davis’ deputy Steve Baker has followed his boss out of the door.

Conservative MP Andrea Jenkyns has welcomed the news.

Labour’s Mary Creagh writes on Twitter that this could lead to a leadership contest

Updated

Here’s more on the resignation from Sky News political editor Faisal Islam:

He says we can expect the formal resignation shortly:

Meanwhile, the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg says the knives are out:

Updated

The Sun’s political editor Tom Newton Dunn points out that Davis’ resignation is one of many under May’s leadership.

Conservative MP Andrea Jenkyns, who quit a junior government role earlier this year to “fight for Brexit” and has threatened to vote against Theresa May’s plans for exiting the European Union, also tweeted her approval of Mr Davis’ resignation.

Leading Brexiter MP Peter Bone has welcome the resignation:

Meanwhile, Brussels waits and watches...

Updated

We have another resignation, maybe.

The Telegraph’s chief political correspondent says Brexit minister Steve Baker has resigned, too.

Daily Express writer Sarah O’Grady, who is married to David Davis’ chief of staff Stewart Jackson and was among the first to break the news, has been tweeting about the reasons behind his resignation.

She says Davis “decided he couldn’t sell out his own country” and was upset that the prime minister discussed the policy with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, before talking to her ministers.

More worryingly for Theresa May, O’Grady suggests that there could be a major challenge to May’s leadership.

Updated

David Davis resigns

The Brexit secretary David Davis has resigned from the government.

The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg says he is taking at least one more minister with him.

Buckle up, everyone.

Updated

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In My Tiny Kitchen, Every Inch Counts – Yet Drew Barrymore’s Ingenious Blender Earned a Spot on My Counter (And Replaced 3 Bulky Appliances)
The new 'Kitchen System' is a personal blender and food processor all in one, making it a must-have for small spaces (starting with mine)
Homes & Gardens
Homes & Gardens
Former Texas Roadhouse worker calls out the outlet for ‘scooping out’ a bug from their cinnamon butter, but people noticed something even worse
Everyone has seen the viral videos of secret menu hacks or behind-the-scenes kitchen tours. But one former Texas Roadhouse server’s “throwback” TikTok of a bug in cinnamon butter is a literal nightmare. People with a fear of bugs, you might want to sit this one out.
The Mary Sue
The Mary Sue
From YouTuber to NASCAR driver: Cleetus McFarland expands his racing resume at Daytona
Garrett Mitchell is better known as “Cleetus McFarland” to his millions of followers gained over the years as a racing influencer
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Woman orders wedding dress from Dior. Then she sees the box it came in. People are alarmed at the reveal: ‘I thought that was a fridge’
Forget butterflies and happy tears. This Dior bride’s big moment arrived looking less like couture and more like a Home Depot delivery. In a now-viral TikTok, handymen lug a massive wooden crate into her house–except it’s the kind you’d expect to hold a fridge, not a frock.
The Mary Sue
The Mary Sue
8 Signs Your Healthy Southern Diet is Actually Causing Inflammation
Traditional Southern flavors often rely on fresh produce and lean proteins, but common preparation methods can unintentionally trigger inflammation. While many believe they are following a wholesome regional diet, specific dietary habits might be working against health goals. Identifying these subtle shifts in nutrition can help restore balance and improve…
Budget and the Bees
Budget and the Bees
The science behind the trend for showering in the dark before bed
The latest wellness trend and “sleep hack” involves switching off the bathroom light before stepping into the shower. In the dimness, the water feels louder, the day’s visual clutter fades and the hope is that sleep will come more easily. This practice, often called “dark showering”, has spread on social…
The Conversation
The Conversation
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