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A8 WORLD NEWS
Monday 9 July 2018

Most senior Brexit official quits government

By JILL LAWLESS, bloc on March 29, 2019. at all.”
Associated Press The EU has warned Britain “A very soft Brexit means
LONDON (AP) — Brit- that time is running out to that we haven’t left, we
ain’s most senior official seal a divorce deal. are simply a rule-taker,” he
in charge of negotiating On Friday, Davis and the said.
the country’s exit from the rest of May’s fractious Cab- Davis’s resignation could
European Union resigned inet agreed on a plan for embolden Brexit-support-
Sunday, two days after ties with the EU after the ing Conservative lawmak-
Prime Minister Theresa May U.K. leaves next year. ers to challenge May’s
announced she had finally On Monday, May is due leadership. Some dream
united her quarrelsome to brief lawmakers on the of replacing May with a
government behind a plan plan hammered out during staunch Brexiteer, such
for Brexit. a 12-hour meeting at Che- as Foreign Secretary Boris
The Press Association news quers, the prime minister’s Johnson, who in the past
agency, the BBC and oth- country retreat. It seeks has disagreed publicly with
ers said Brexit Secretary Da- to keep the U.K. and the his boss.
vid Davis resigned Sunday. EU in a free-trade zone for Johnson has not comment-
Davis’s late-night resigna- goods, and commits Britain ed publicly since Friday.
tion undermined May’s al- to maintaining the same But some senior pro-Brexit
ready fragile government. rules as the bloc for goods ministers have backed
He was a strong pro-Brexit and agricultural products. May’s plan.
voice in a Cabinet divided Some Brexit-supporting Environment Secretary Mi-
between supporters of a lawmakers are angry at chael Gove said Sunday
clean break with the bloc the proposals, saying they that it did not contain ev-
and those who want to will keep Britain tethered erything he wanted but
keep close ties with Britain’s to the bloc and unable to “I’m a realist.”
biggest trading partner. change its rules to strike “All those of us who believe
The staunchly pro-Brexit new trade deals around that we want to execute a
Conservative lawmaker the world. proper Brexit, and one that
Andrea Jenkyns tweeted: Conservative lawmaker Ja- is the best deal for Britain,
“Fantastic news. Well done cob Rees-Mogg, a leader have an opportunity now
David Davis for having the of the party’s “hard Brexit” to get behind the prime
principal and guts to re- faction, compared May’s minister in order to negoti-
sign.” plan to an egg so softly ate that deal,” he told the
Jenkyns said Steve Baker, a
junior minister in the Brexit boiled that it “isn’t boiled BBC.q
department, had also quit.
There was no immediate
comment from either Baker Exiting the European Union (Brexit) Secretary David Davis arrives
in Downing Street, London, for a Cabinet meeting, Tuesday July
or Davis. 3, 2018.
Less than nine months re- Associated Press
main until Britain leaves the