U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit secretary resigned, signaling turmoil within her government over her plan for the country to exit from the European Union.
“I believe that the regulatory regime proposed for Northern Ireland presents a very real threat to the integrity of the United Kingdom,” Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab wrote on Twitter on Thursday.
The British pound fell after the announcement, trading down 1.2% on the day at $1.2821.
On Wednesday, Mrs. May secured approval of a Brexit deal that allows the U.K. to maintain close ties to the EU, its biggest trading partner, while reclaiming control over its borders.
However, she has encountered open hostility to the plan from anti-EU members of her own Conservative Party.
Her plan would leave Northern Ireland more closely tied than the rest of the U.K. to the EU if a broader Brexit deal on Britain’s long-term trading and economic relations can’t be reached.
The resignation imperils that agreement just hours after it was sealed. If other senior ministers follow Mr. Raab’s decision, Mrs. May could face an open challenge to her leadership.
The resignation of Mr. Raab, who has advocated that the U.K. make a clean break from the EU, reflect the challenges Mrs. May faces in pushing her Brexit package through Parliament.
It came after a Northern Ireland minister also stood down over the draft deal early Thursday.
Shailesh Vara said in his resignation letter posted to his Twitter account that he couldn’t support the agreement Mrs. May put before cabinet because it leaves the U.K. in a “halfway house with no time limit on when we will finally be a sovereign nation.”
Any further senior resignations could lead to a leadership challenge in the coming days. Such a challenge requires the support of 48 members of the Conservative Party.
Mrs. May is set to address Parliament on Thursday morning, where she will face tough questioning from lawmakers on the Brexit deal.
Mrs. May’s government lacks a majority in the lower house, meaning that the agreement could still be rejected or altered. In such a case, Mrs. May risks falling from power through a leadership challenge from within the ranks of her Conservative Party.
In his resignation letter, Mr. Raab wrote that “no democratic nation has ever signed up to be bound by such an extensive regime, imposed externally without any democratic control over the laws to be applied, nor the ability to decide to exit from the arrangement.”
Meanwhile, European Council President Donald Tusk called on EU leaders to meet in Brussels on Nov. 25 to sign off on Mrs. May’s Brexit plan.
—Joanna Sugden contributed to this article.
Corrections & Amplifications
Dominic Raab resigned as the U.K.’s Brexit secretary. An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to him as the EU Brexit secretary. (Nov. 15, 2018)
Write to Laurence Norman at laurence.norman@wsj.com
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