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David Davis steps down as Brexit secretary in blow to Theresa May – live updates David Davis: 'I wouldn't have done a good job' of delivering May's Brexit plan – politics live
(35 minutes later)
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.
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 Damacles”.
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.
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 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.
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.
John Humphrys is interviewing David Davis on Today.
He starts by quoting from 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
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.
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.There are mixed signals on when Theresa May plans to appoint a new Brexit secretary.
May to announce her new Brexit secretary after 9am. One Brexiteer source reckons Grayling or Fox - they have been the most loyal. Gove possible too; but trickier to handleMay to announce her new Brexit secretary after 9am. One Brexiteer source reckons Grayling or Fox - they have been the most loyal. Gove possible too; but trickier to handle
Stand down - I'm told new Brexit Secretary WON'T be announced at 9am. "These things take a while... it will be sometime this morning," says No10 sourceStand down - I'm told new Brexit Secretary WON'T be announced at 9am. "These things take a while... it will be sometime this morning," says No10 source
Another Brexiter MP has also expressed backing for Davis. Andrew Bridgen said the former Brexit secretary had done “absolutely the right thing” in resigning.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.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.”“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.”
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.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.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.“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.”“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: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 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.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.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.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.”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.
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.
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.
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.”