Update VII: Just as May is fighting for her political future, more unsympathetic EU bureaucrats are turning up the pressure. The latest was EU Council Head Donald Tusk, who said that "Since the very beginning, we have had no doubt that Brexit is a lose-lose situation and that our negotiations have only been about damage control."
This statement makes the EU's ulterior motive clear: To frustrate Parliament and hopefully stop the Brexit.
Another junior cabinet minister just tendered his resignation: North East Hampshire MP Ranil Jayawardena, a parliamentary private secretary to the Ministry of Justice, has also offered his resignation.
Cutting against earlier reports that Mordaunt would begrudgingly remain in May's cabinet, the minister is reportedly meeting with May Thursday afternoon to push for a "free vote" on the Brexit plan - which No. 10 is adamantly against (most likely because they would lose). This is the clearest indication yet that Mordaunt could become the third senior minister to resign.
BREAKING
I’m told that Penny Mordaunt going to see PM later this afternoon. She’s pushing for a free vote on the Brexit deal, which the No 10 is adamant will not happen.
Could she become the third Cabinet resignation of this extraordinary day? We’ll know in a few hours...
— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) November 15, 2018I’m told that Penny Mordaunt going to see PM later this afternoon. She’s pushing for a free vote on the Brexit deal, which the No 10 is adamant will not happen.
Could she become the third Cabinet resignation of this extraordinary day? We’ll know in a few hours...
Meanwhile, rumors are circulating that the ERG has reached the 48-letter threshold to call for a leadership challenge, though there's been nothing concrete yet. Back in Westminster, Theresa May has been answering questions from agitated MPs for more than two hours - most of them hostile, as BBG pointed out. And the Sun is reporting that the confidence vote in May is "already on."
Sounds to me like a confidence vote already on. Whips informally sounding out MPs on which way they would vote.... 🚨— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) November 15, 2018
Update VI: The Telegraph is reporting that Gove has been offered the position of Brexit secretary, but he's unsure whether to accept following Raab's resignation, as he also has reservations about the deal.
BREAKING— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) November 15, 2018
Michael Gove has been offered the job of Brexit Secretary, sources confirm.
But he's still wrestling with whether he will stay on at all in the wake of Raab's resignation. Which will it be?
Meanwhile, rumors are circulating that Penny Mordaunt may become the third senior minister to resign on Thursday.
Here's a quick roundup of Thursday's most notable developments, courtesy of RanSquawk.
- UK Brexit Secretary Raab has resigned
- Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Esther McVey
- Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union Suella Braverman
- Parliamentary Private Secretary in the Department of Education Anne-Marie Trevelyan
- James Rothwell Telegraph Brexit correspondent tweeted that “a plugged-in Tory source, not a Brexiteer, reckons 6 Cabinet
- resignations to follow Raab, three unknowns, the rest will back the deal. (Newswires)
- Those who will not resign:
- Steven Swinford of the Telegraph tweets "Jeremy Hunt and Sajid Javid are going nowhere, I'm told". (Newswires)
- Steven Swinford Telegraph Deputy Political editor tweets that Gove isn't in the Commons because of a personal issue. He decided
- to stay because stakes so high - if he left it would have precipitated exodus. Now Raab's gone everything changes.. (Newswires)
- Beth Rigby tweets "Understand that Leadsom is not resigning before business questions". (Newswires)
- No confidence vote:
- ITV's Peston says that Tory MP's tell him that 48 letters of no-confidence are to be lodged by lunchtime today. (Newswires)
- Steven Swinford Telegraph Deputy Political Editor tweets Jacob Rees-Mogg just threatened to submit his letter of no confidence in
- the Chamber, which he later submitted. (Newswires)
- Parliament Vote:
- DUP MP Shannon says they feel betrayed and will "certainly" vote against May's Brexit deal. (Newswires)
- Recent reports suggest that the Parliamentary meaningful vote on Brexit could take place on December 18th. (Newswires)
Update V: In comments to the BBC, Raab accused the EU of "blackmailing us" and insisted that the deal wouldn't make it through Parliament. He added that it would be better to walk away and accept short term pain than sign up to terms that could damage the country for years.
Update IV: With the eurosceptic European Research Group set to meet Thursday at 12:45 London Time, reports have surfaced claiming that the leader of the Brexiteers, Jacob Reese Mogg, is preparing to submit a letter of no-confidence in May to the 1922 committee.
Meanwhile, Wall Street analysts believe there could be more pain ahead for the pound following Raab's resignation. Indeed, the pound could fall to $1.25, according to Mizuho's head of hedge fund sales Neil Jones.
Just in case Parliament didn't get the message yesterday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday that there's "no chance" of more negotiations on Brexit.
Update III: David Mundell, May's minister for Scotland, is expected to make a statement on Thursday affirming that he will not resign over May's deal, a day after he signed a letter with 12 other conservative Scottish MPs demanding that the UK's membership in the Common Fisheries Policy not be used as a bargaining chip in the negotiations.
Update II: As debate over the merits of May's deal - that is, whether it's a reasonable alternative to 'no deal' or a 'People's Vote' - rages in Parliament, the BBC has confirmed what many have suspected. This plan will need to be defeated in a vote in the Commons before May accepts that she must return to Brussels.
One Conservative MP just told me PM will have to be defeated in Commons vote before accepting plan needs to change #brexithttps://t.co/qmpD2spPNg
Theresa May's draft Brexit plan isn't dead yet - but its chances of survival certainly aren't looking good.
With only 10 days until a hoped-for EU summit, the government of Theresa May lost a key senior official Thursday morning when Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab, the senior cabinet official who would have been responsible for selling the plan to the House of Commons, tendered his resignation, saying he could not in good faith support May's draft plan. His resignation comes after May's cabinet reluctantly rubber-stamped the plan Tuesday night following threats from the EU to cancel a planned summit, which would have dramatically increasing the odds of a "no deal" Brexit.
In his resignation letter, Raab (the second Brexit secretary to quit May's government in the past six months) said he couldn't support the deal for two reasons: Its treatment of Northern Ireland would be a "very real" threat to the integrity of the UK, and the indefinite backstop would effectively grant the EU veto power over when the UK could leave.
With McVey gone, Bloomberg warned us to keep an eye out for more Cabinet dominoes: Penny Mordaunt, Andrea Leadsom and possibly Michael Gove, three senior ministers who have reportedly expressed doubts about the plan, could all resign, fearful of being outflanked.
Three junior ministers have also quit: Shailesh Vara, the minister of state at the Northern Ireland Office, resigned over the deal Thursday morning, and Suella Braverman quit as a junior Brexit minister. Anne-Marie Trevelyan also resigned her role as parliamentary private secretary.
This latest wave of resignations follows former Transport Minister Jo Johnson's (brother of Boris) decision to resign on Friday. Johnson warned that the UK was "barrelling towards an incoherent" divorce and demanded another referendum - what has been termed a "People's Vote" by remainers - on May's draft deal that would effectively become a second Brexit vote.
As frustrations with the deal grow, Conservative MP Anne Marie Morris told Sky News that she has submitted a letter of no confidence to the 1922 Committee. 48 letters would be needed for May to face a leadership challenge.
May is expected to deliver a statement in response to the resignations, where she will reportedly insist that "nothing has changed."
By resigning, McVey and Raab can now vote in Parliament against May's deal.
With more resignations likely ahead, Sky News has compiled this helpful list of everyone who has ever resigned over Brexit:
Esther McVey, work and pensions secretary
Dominic Raab, Brexit secretary
Shailesh Vara, Northern Ireland minister
Jo Johnson, transport minister
David Davis, Brexit secretary
Boris Johnson, foreign secretary
Steve Baker, Brexit minister
Guto Bebb, defence minister
Ben Bradley and Maria Caulfield, Conservative Party vice-chairs
Scott Mann, Robert Courts, Andrea Jenkyns, Chris Green, parliamentary private secretaries
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