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David Davis steps down as Brexit secretary in blow to PM – live updates David Davis steps down as Brexit secretary in blow to PM – live updates
(35 minutes later)
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.
The irony of this interview is that Bernard Jenkin spent much of last week urging people to back the prime minister
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:
Just done a 'down the line' pre-record; never again with my little 15 month old in tow. Who was blowing raspberries, coughing, jumping on me and trying to get in on the action. Distracting but reminds you what is truly important! #BabiesAreGreat
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.David Davis will be speaking to the Today programme at 8.10am.
I am very happy to hear the news of @DavidDavisMP and @SteveBakerHW resignations. Men of principle who wish to honour people's decision to leave the EU and negotiate well.I am very happy to hear the news of @DavidDavisMP and @SteveBakerHW resignations. Men of principle who wish to honour people's decision to leave the EU and negotiate well.
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.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.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.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.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.”“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.”
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.
The Times puts it front and centre, with three pages inside too.
Telegraph says what everyone is wondering.
Mirror puts it on page two, not even a treasured right-hand page.
Sun gives it maybe a five out of 10.
Here are the UK front pages we have gathered so far. Guardian, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Daily Telegraph, and the Sun.
The shadow foreign secretary builds on the growing theme of a government in chaos.
Government resignations since autumn:1 November 2017 - Fallon8 November 2017 - Patel20 December 2017 - Green29 April 2018 - Rudd 8 January 2018 - Greening8 July 2018 - DavisThere have been six resignations in 249 days. That’s one every six weeks
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.”