Britain’s Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab has resigned, saying he “cannot in good conscience support the terms proposed for our deal with the EU.”
The resignation is a big blow to Prime Minister Theresa May, who is scheduled to address lawmakers Thursday morning on the draft Brexit deal. She is already facing an uphill struggle to persuade enough lawmakers in Parliament to accept the agreement with the European Union, VOA news reports.
May made some major concessions to the EU to achieve the deal: Britain, for example, will remain tied to the European Union’s customs union during the transition period and potentially for much longer.
Raab said the agreement was unacceptable and that “no democratic nation has ever signed up to be bound by such an extensive regime.”
The pound fell sharply after Raab resigned.
The currency dropped 1 percent, a relatively large decline for an established currency, to $1.2870 within minutes of a tweet by Raab saying he could not support the deal.
The deal is considered insufficient by Brexit backers as well as those who wanted to remain in the EU. Parliament needs to approve the deal, and it is unclear whether May has the numbers to push it through. She had persuaded a majority of her Cabinet to back the deal
British lawmakers are struggling to summon much enthusiasm for the proposed Brexit plan, with the opposition Labour Party signaling it will vote against.
The opposition Labour Party’s Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer told the “Good Morning Britain” television program that the deal was a “miserable failure of negotiation,” signaling that May is unlikely to be able to count on the main opposition to make up for those from her own Conservative Party who look set to vote against.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the BBC’s Radio 4 that lawmakers should back the draft divorce agreement because the alternatives were “ugly.”
In addition to the resignation of Raab, Shailesh Vara quit as Northern Ireland minister on Thursday, saying he could not support May’s agreement, which he said “leaves the UK in a halfway house with no time limit on when we will finally be a sovereign nation.”
Praise, however, is coming in one corner.
Following an early Thursday meeting, European Union chief Donald Tusk has called for a summit of leaders to take place Nov. 25 so they can endorse a draft Brexit deal that has been reached with the British government.
Tusk heaped praise on the EU’s Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, who had “achieved the two most important objectives” — limiting the damage caused by Britain’s impending departure and maintaining the interests of the other 27 countries that will remain in the bloc after Brexit.