In a big blow to the British Prime Minister Theresa May one of her most senior Cabinet members, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Monday resigned ahead of her Brexit address.
Johnson’s resignation came hours after David Davis’ resignation who was in charge of Brexit negotiations.
May’s political future comes under threat as the current situation leaves British Prime Minister’s plan for Britain’s future relationship with the European Union in splits, just three days after it was agreed with her divided Cabinet.
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“This afternoon, the Prime Minister accepted the resignation of Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary,” a statement from Downing Street said. “His replacement will be announced shortly. The Prime Minister thanks Boris for his work.”
Davis resigned late on Sunday night, declaring he could not support May’s Brexit plan, it involved too close a relationship with the EU and gave only an illusion of control being returned to the UK after it left the EU.
Top things to know about Brexit.
- What is Brexit: Acronym for Britain and Exit. It was coined when Britain decided to leave the European Union.
- What is European Union: European Union (EU) is a political and economic forum established in 1993, to create unity in Europe. It currently has 28 European nations as it’s members.
- It acts a supranational body with it’s own constitution, Flag, National anthem, currency, parliament, Visa (Schengen), Single Market ( allows free movement of labour, capital, goods and services), and it’s own set of rules and regulations.
- Why Britain is leaving European Union? The British felt that a large inflow highly skilled people from other EU states took away their jobs, the rules and constitutional authority of EU impinges on their national sovereignty, the benefits of being in the EU was disproportional to the amount of money spent to maintain the membership.
- When did the referendum take place ? The referendum took place on June 23, 2016 with 51.9% citizens choosing to ‘leave’ the EU and remaining chose to ‘stay’.
- What is likely to happen post-Brexit? As EU is UK’s largest trading partner, an exit will mean imposition of tariff and non-tariff trade barriers, which will negatively impact the British GDP.
- Reduction in FDI will narrow the employment rate and overall income level of the economy.
- UK will lose job opportunities and demand will fall as East European countries “A8”, who bought FDI and demand in the country, when they joined the EU, will not do so anymore.