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Brexit Deal in Peril as Ministers Quit 11/15 06:24
Two British Cabinet ministers, including Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab,
resigned Thursday in opposition to the divorce deal struck by Prime Minister
Theresa May with the EU -- a major blow to her authority and her ability to get
the deal through Parliament.
LONDON (AP) -- Two British Cabinet ministers, including Brexit Secretary
Dominic Raab, resigned Thursday in opposition to the divorce deal struck by
Prime Minister Theresa May with the EU --- a major blow to her authority and
her ability to get the deal through Parliament.
A defiant May insisted Brexit meant making "the right choices, not the easy
ones" and urged lawmakers to support the deal "in the national interest."
"The choice is clear," May told lawmakers. "We can choose to leave with no
deal. We can risk no Brexit at all. Or we can choose to unite and support the
best deal that can be negotiated --- this deal."
But the resignations, less than a day after the Cabinet collectively backed
the draft divorce agreement, weakens May and is likely to embolden her rivals
within her Conservative Party. A leadership challenge is being openly discussed.
"I cannot in good conscience support the terms proposed for our deal with
the EU," Raab said in a resignation letter to the prime minister.
"I cannot reconcile the terms of the proposed deal with the promises we
made."
Raab is the second Brexit Secretary that May has lost --- David Davis, who
like Raab backed Brexit in the U.K.'s June 2016 referendum on its membership of
the EU, quit in July of this year.
Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey followed Raab out the door. She
said in a letter that it is "no good trying to pretend to (voters) that this
deal honors the result of the referendum when it is obvious to everyone that it
doesn't."
The departures --- several junior ministers have also quit --- are a further
sign that many supporters of Brexit won't back May in a vote in Parliament on
the deal. That's prompted a big fall in the value of the pound, which was
trading 1.5 percent lower at $1.28.
Pro-Brexit politicians say the agreement, which calls for close trade ties
between the U.K. and the bloc, would leave Britain a vassal state, bound to EU
rules that it has no say in making.
Before Parliament votes on the deal --- the culmination of a year and a half
of negotiations between the two sides --- EU leaders have to give their
backing. On Thursday, EU chief Donald Tusk called for a summit of leaders to
take place on Nov. 25 so they can rubber-stamp the draft deal reached by
officials earlier this week.
May has supporters in her party, and they argued Thursday that the
alternatives --- leaving the trading bloc without a deal or a second vote on
Brexit --- were not realistic options.
"'No deal' is not pretty," Health Secretary Matt Hancock told BBC Radio 4.
"A second referendum would be divisive but not be decisive."
But May's chances of getting her deal through Parliament appeared to be
shrinking. Her Conservative government doesn't have enough lawmakers of its own
to get a majority, and relies on the support of the Democratic Unionist Party
from Northern Ireland, which says it will not back the deal.
Opposition parties also signaled that they would vote against the agreement
if it comes before them --- most likely in December.
Main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said May should withdraw
the "half-baked" Brexit deal. He said Parliament "cannot and will not accept a
false choice between this deal and no deal."
Ian Blackford, who heads the Scottish National Party in Parliament, said the
deal was "dead on arrival" and urged May to stop the countdown clock to
Britain's exit, less than five months away.
"Do the right thing and we will work with you," he said. "Stop the clock and
go back to Brussels."
Meanwhile in Brussels, Tusk heaped praise on the EU's Brexit negotiator,
Michel Barnier, who had "achieved the two most important objectives" for the
bloc --- limiting the damage caused by Britain's impending departure and
maintaining the interests of the other 27 countries that will remain in the EU
after Brexit.
"As much as I am sad to see you leave, I will do everything to make this
farewell the least painful possible for both for you and for us," said Tusk,
who in his role as European Council President chairs the meetings of leaders.
The deal also requires the consent of the European Parliament as well as the
British one and on Thursday Barnier was set to travel to Strasbourg, France, to
win over legislators there. The parliament's chief Brexit official, Guy
Verhofstadt, has already welcomed the draft withdrawal agreement late Wednesday.
But over the coming weeks, the British Parliament will be the focal point of
the Brexit process. The deal has to be backed by a majority of lawmakers so
Britain can leave the EU on March 29, 2019.
(KA)
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