Boris Johnson, U.K. Foreign Secretary, Resigns Over Brexit Discord
By Stephen Castle and Michael Wolgelenter
LONDON — Boris Johnson resigned as Britain’s foreign secretary on Monday, becoming the second cabinet minister to quit in less than 24 hours in protest over plans from Prime Minister Theresa May to soften the economic impact of British withdrawal from the European Union.
Mr. Johnson’s departure followed that of David Davis, who quit as Brexit secretary late Sunday, and deepens the mood of crisis gripping Mrs. May’s government three days after she thought she had won agreement from her cabinet on a Brexit plan.
The public face of the 2016 campaign that persuaded Britons to quit the European Union, known as Brexit, Mr. Johnson is perhaps the most high-profile advocate of leaving the bloc and his departure highlights the depth of the divisions in Mrs. May’s bitterly divided government.
On several occasions, Mr. Johnson had appeared to undermine Mrs. May’s strategy, and in comments that were recently leaked, he described her government as lacking “guts,” unfavorably comparing the prime minister’s negotiating style to that of President Trump.
After Mr. Davis’s surprise resignation, there was an ominous silence Monday morning from Mr. Johnson, who was scheduled to host a diplomatic meeting in London to discuss the western Balkans.
Then, around 3 p.m., Mrs. May’s office issued a statement that said simply: “This afternoon, the prime minister accepted the resignation of Boris Johnson as foreign secretary. His replacement will be announced shortly. The prime minister thanks Boris for his work.”
Mr. Davis’s resignation Sunday night revealed the intensity of the split in the cabinet, although he did not appeal to other ministers to follow him.
Mr. Davis was among the members of the prime minister’s cabinet demanding a more complete break from the European Union, known as a “hard Brexit”
Mrs. May had moved swiftly on Monday to try to stabilize her government by appointing Dominic Raab, another advocate of Brexit, to replace Mr. Davis, although Mr. Johnson’s decision will reverberate in more difficult ways.
Mr. Davis said that he could not accept the approach that Mrs. May demanded in the meeting with top officials on Friday, contending that Britain was giving away too much, too easily in negotiations with the union, and that he was leaving his job because he could not, in conscience, argue for the cabinet’s Brexit position in public.
Other members of Mrs. May’s cabinet have been arguing for a “soft Brexit,” which would seek to maintain economic stability by keeping closer ties to the European Union after Britain leaves. Most recently, Jaguar Land Rover and Airbus have expressed concerns about the government’s approach to the negotiations.
Mr. Davis specifically cited concerns about any agreement that would leave Britain in a customs union and the single market.
“The general direction of policy will leave us in, at best, a weak negotiating position, and possibly an inescapable one,” he wrote in a letter to the prime minister that was released publicly. “The cabinet decision on Friday crystallized this problem.”
Mr. Davis acknowledged that there were no guarantees of what would happen after Britain leaves the bloc, but he said that Mrs. May’s strategy meant that his position as chief negotiator was untenable.
“This is a complex area of judgment, and it is possible that you are right and I am wrong,” he wrote. “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.”
Mrs. May disputed Mr. Davis’s assessment of the situation, saying that whatever deal is reached will “undoubtedly mean the returning of powers from Brussels to the United Kingdom.”
Speaking to the BBC on Monday, however, Mr. Davis said the prime minister’s plan to return power to the British Parliament was “illusory rather than real.”
The reaction of other supporters of a “hard Brexit” will be crucial. Additional cabinet departures would further damage Mrs. May’s already weakened position, but at the same time, it is far from clear that they there is sufficient support to dislodge her from power.
And, for his part, Mr. Davis told the BBC that he was not looking to push Mrs. May out of a job. “I like Theresa May,” he said. “I think she’s a good prime minister.”
It would take 48 Conservative lawmakers to call a confidence motion in her leadership. But she would remain in her job if, in that contest, she won the support of a simple majority of the Conservative Party’s 316 lawmakers.
Britain faces a deadline of March 29, 2019, to reach a deal with the European Union. Progress has been slow and difficult, but Mrs. May appeared to have taken a big step on Friday in the meeting with her cabinet at Chequers, the prime minister’s country estate, by bringing advocates of a hard-line Brexit into line.
The government released a declaration after the meeting that the cabinet would seek “a common rule book for industrial goods and agricultural products,” meaning that — pending an agreement with the European Union — it would continue to abide by the bloc’s rules in that area, although it would no longer have any say over how those rules are shaped and approved.
At the same time, the government would no longer be bound by European rules for services, an approach intended to give Britain more freedom in banking and finance, which represent a huge part of the Britain economy.
The plan announced on Friday also means that Britain would reject the European demand for free movement of people across borders, although goods would be allowed to pass freely between Ireland (which is part of the bloc) and Northern Ireland (which will not be).
While Mrs. May’s cabinet agreed on its negotiating stance, it was not clear which of its positions — if any — the European Union would accept.
Mr. Davis’s announcement was followed by another departure. The BBC reported the resignation of Steve Baker, a prominent advocate of a British withdrawal who served as an under secretary in the Department for Exiting the European Union.
Follow Stephen Castle and Michael Wolgelenter on Twitter: @_StephenCastle and @mwolgelenter
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