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Boris Johnson resigns as foreign secretary, throwing Brexit into disarray – politics live Boris Johnson resigns as foreign secretary, throwing Brexit into disarray – politics live
(35 minutes later)
This is from Sky’s Beth Rigby. Here are two blogs on the Boris Johnson resignation that are worth readin
Nasty this; told Boris Johnson informed No 10 earlier that he was going to resign this evening & they put out statement. “They think they’re terribly clever” said a friend. The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg says Boris Johnson’s resignation may be followed by others.
Iain Duncan Smith, the Conservative former party leader and Brexiter, asks if any concessions will be offered to the EU. A well-connected source has just told me that it could be more serious than that.
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. They told me it is a concerted push to force the prime minister to drop her Chequers’ compromise.
May says Corbyn was supposed to ask some questions, but that he did not actually do so. They said: “If she doesn’t drop Chequers there will be another, then another, then another, then another”.
On standards, May says the government is committed to maintaining high regulatory standards for the environment, climate change, social and employment, and consumer protection. Gary Gibbon at Channel 4 News says Number 10 expects a leadership challenge.
On the subject of resignations, she says Corbyn has had 103 resignations from his front bench. So she will take no lectures from him. 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.
She says Labour can’t speak about economic policy. Their policies would lead to a run on the pound. 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.
Jeremy Corbyn says the cabinet Brexit deal took two years to negotiate and two days to unravel. Andrea Jenkyns, a Tory Brexiter, says she has received hundreds of emails form people disappointed by the Chequers plan. How can she restore faith in politics.
He mocks May’s claim that she has restored cabinet collective responsibility. 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.
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. Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, has issued a statement backing Theresa May.
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.) Statement. pic.twitter.com/YxNy8dMxwi
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”. Peter Bone, the Conservative Brexiter, says 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.
Number 10 has announced two promotions. 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.
Kat Malthouse, a work and pensions minister, replaces Dominic Raab as the new housing minister. 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.
And Chris Heaton-Harris becomes a junior minister at the Brexit department, replacing Steve Baker. But the Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith has applauded Johnson’s decision to resign.
Since the referendum there has been “a spirited national debate” on Brexit. Boris could literally throw himself in front of a bus to save a child, and his opponents would still accuse him of being opportunistic. He’d never have wanted to resign from one of the great offices of state. That he did so shows how much he cares about respecting the referendum
She has listened to every possible idea, she says. She says this is the right one to pursue. In an interview with LBC, David Davis was asked for his reaction to Boris Johnson’s resignation. He replied:
May confirms the government white paper on Brexit will be published on Thursday. 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.
May says her proposals are consistent with what the Conservative manifesto promised. David Davis refuses to say he welcomes Boris Johnson’s resignation.
She goes on: 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”.
What we are proposing is challenging for the EU. May says that is not what she is saying.
That triggers laughter. 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.
She says her plan would require the EU to think again. May replies with a single word: “No.”
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. 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.
She says some people have said the UK would not be able to strike trade deals under her plan. That is wrong, she says. 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.
Here is Sir Vince Cable, the Lib Dem leader, on Boris Johnson’s resignation. 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.
He might have taken time to pluck up the courage to join his hard Brexiter colleagues, but Boris Johnson’s resignation completely destroys the Conservative position.It's not too late. We can exit from Brexit - add your name today: https://t.co/QmgPvjx5jN Sir Bill Cash, the Conservative Brexiter, asks how May reconciles her plan with democratic self-government.
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. 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.
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 regulation 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.
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.
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” showed in promoting a global Britain to the world.
Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, is wondering aloud whether the UK might reject Brexit.
Politicians come and go but the problems they have created for people remain. I can only regret that the idea of #Brexit has not left with Davis and Johnson. But...who knows?
This is from the Evening Standard’s Jim Armitage.
Just when you thought the govt might not totally screw up brexit, Boris resigns. Sterling sighs in resignation. pic.twitter.com/8usYMadzq6
This is from the Guido Fawkes website.
Source: Permanent Secretary and SpAds have just been called into Liam Fox's office at DIT.
This is from the Spectator’s James Forsyth.
Understand that Boris now thinks that ‘no deal’ would be better than the Chequers plan. We’re about to find out how many Tory MPs agree with him https://t.co/VZ6DpG6gxz
The government is in “complete and utter chaos”, Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, has said.
Tom Watson MP, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, responding to Boris Johnson’s resignation, said: “Theresa May’s Government is in meltdown. This is complete and utter chaos."
Boris Johnson is about to leave his official residence at Carlton Gardens, the BBC reports.