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U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson Resigns, In Latest Turmoil For May Government
July 09, 2018
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has resigned, amid deepening turmoil in Prime Minister Theresa May's government.
Johnson's resignation, announced by Downing Street on July 9, came just hours after the government's senior-most official in charge of negotiating Britain's exit from the European Union stepped down.
"This afternoon, the prime minister accepted the resignation of Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary," May's office said in a statement.
Johnson later released his own statement, in which he accused May of surrendering in the negotiations with the European Union.
"The Brexit dream is dying, suffocated by needless self doubt," he wrote.
In his resignation earlier on July 9, David Davis, whose informal title is Brexit secretary, criticized a hard-won agreement that May had won from senior ministers on a strategy to leave the European Union.
The resignations plunged May's already fragile government into deep uncertainty. She has lost two ministers in the past year over sexual misconduct allegations.
May replied to Davis's criticism in a letter, saying that her Brexit plan was in line with her commitment to leave the European single market and customs union.
May appointed Dominic Raab who was previously housing minister as the new Brexit minister.
Britain is scheduled to leave the EU by the end of March 2019 following a June 2016 public referendum that showed a narrow margin of support for leaving the bloc.
With reporting by AP and BBC
Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
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