UK govt appoints pro-Brexit minister to replace Davis, who resigned

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ASTANA. KAZINFORM - A rift in the United Kingdom's ruling Conservative Party over the terms on which the country will leave the European Union has led to the resignation of the cabinet minister in charge of negotiating the country's departure from the bloc and the appointment on Monday of a pro-leave successor in the post, EFE reports.

David Davis resigned from the UK government's Department for Exiting the European Union late Sunday, two days after the government of Prime Minister Theresa May agreed on a plan for post-Brexit relations with the EU at Chequers, a country estate used by Number 10 Downing St.

"As I said at Cabinet, the 'common rule book' policy hands control of large swathes of our economy to the EU and is certainly not returning control of our laws in any real sense," Davis said in his resignation letter.

The cabinet backed May's softer Brexit proposal at the Chequers meeting, something that led to the departures of staunch pro-leavers Davis and Steve Baker, one of his junior ministers.

The prime minister's survival will largely depend on how many more ministers depart her government over the rift.

May has attempted to check a full-blown revolt in her cabinet by appointing Dominic Raab to replace Davis.

Raab, a respected lawyer, is known to be a staunch Brexit supporter and has experience as a junior minister in the housing and justice ministries.

Davis's resignation letter revealed the rifts in May's cabinet over the likely outcome of Brexit and the final outcome of the referendum that sparked the crisis.

"The general direction of policy will leave us in at best a weak negotiating position, and possibly an inescapable one," Davis said in his letter to the prime minister. "The Cabinet decision on Friday crystallized this problem. In my view, the inevitable consequence of the proposed policies will be to make the supposed control by Parliament illusory rather than real," Davis added.

Davis's reasons for quitting look set to generate concern among Brexit-supporting conservatives who could cause further strains given May's lack of political support after she failed to win a snap general election last year.

Raab now has to work with Downing Street which, for some time, has led the negotiations with Brussels over Brexit instead of Davis.

The 44-year-old Raab was a leading Brexit supporter during the 2016 referendum.

 

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