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Top stories
There is no contest in a competitive field for story of the week after David Davis’s dramatic midnight resignation on Sunday served as a reminder of the fragility of Theresa May’s apparent Chequers victory.
It has also highlighted the schism in the Conservative party over Brexit. (Remember there was another resignation on Sunday: that of Brexit minister Steve Baker, who used to lead the Tory Eurosceptics, but quit when May made him a minister.)
Within 12 hours, Brexit-support housing minister Dominic Raab was named as Brexit secretary. He was Davis’s former chief of staff in opposition and has a black belt in karate.
Although Raab is an ardent Brexiter, his appointment is less divisive than the alternatives. He has also acknowledged that many voters in his constituency south-west of London felt strongly the other way. Since the 2016 referendum, he has adopted a policy of meeting one anti-Brexit constituent a week to hear them out.
However, he created ire after he declared the deal on EU citizens as “done” on BBC’s Question Time when both EU citizens in the UK and British in Europe have many demands outstanding.
Freedom of movement for the British in Europe is chief among the remaining demands.
On the post-Brexit immigration front, May is edging towards a preferential deal for EU citizens, conceding to demands made by industry and agriculture sectors with the Chequers statement citing “a mobility framework so that UK and EU citizens can continue to travel to each other’s territories”.
On EU citizens’ rights in the UK post-Brexit, Barnier made a surprise intervention on Friday when he declared the EU was willing to compromise if May softened her red lines. At the same time he warned that the deal on EU citizens was not done.
“This is not the end of the road and we need to remain vigilant,” he said, speaking about the Home Office’s plans for settled status.
With the government in crisis, the focus is on whether Brexiters will try to oust her.
In Westminster, all eyes remain on Boris Johnson who was one of seven cabinet ministers who tried to derail the Chequers unity mission and described the proposal to keep Britain in a customs arrangement and in the single market for goods as “polishing a turd”.
Those close to the foreign secretary say that he feels “bounced” into agreeing the deal and was the only one of the big league Brexiter ministers apart from Davis who did not come out in support of the deal over the weekend.
Johnson met David Cameron for a private meeting on Thursday, where, according to one source they agreed the Chequers plan was “the worst of all worlds”. Others reported that Cameron gave Johnson “hell” and talked him off the resignation cliff.
While domestic politics took the front seat last week, the coming days will centre on what really matters. The UK’s detailed negotiating position will be laid out on Thursday with the white paper followed by the customs bills on Monday.
Best of the rest
• Raab a class act and high flyer before politics. • Hard Brexit may force Dutch electronics firm Philips to quit UK. • Government has no clue how to execute Brexit without harm – Airbus chief. • Germans warn of reluctance to invest because of Brexit. • Leave.EU campaign met Russian officials as many as 11 times. • Tory MEPs criticised for alliance with Swedish populists. • Brexit impact papers seen by less than 6% of parliamentarians. • Brexit to have greatest impact on regions outside London.
Top comment
Simon Jenkins says the derision shown by Brexiters towards those responsible for the British economy has been not so much arrogant as illiterate.
No sooner does Theresa May win her cabinet critics over to her Brexit compromise than David Davis rains on her parade. Her chief Brexit negotiator has had enough. His resignation letter suggests a long-disaffected colleague, sidelined from negotiations and fed up with being the butt of feuds. Quite what he wanted from his job that was remotely achievable remains obscure. Now he is yesterday’s man.
And what a week for cartoonists.
Chris Riddell’s cartoon – soft Brexit is coming home – captures the mood of a nation.
