The work and pensions secretary, Esther McVey, has become the second senior minister to quit the cabinet, following the Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, out of the door and throwing Theresa May’s government into turmoil.
McVey, an arch Brexiter who was known to be unhappy with the prime minister’s Brexit plans, said they had failed to “honour the result” of the referendum and had crossed her own red lines for leaving the EU.
During a tense five-hour cabinet meeting on Wednesday, McVey twice called for a vote to be taken on the deal. In her resignation letter to May, she wrote: “We have gone from no deal is better than a bad deal, to any deal is better than no deal.”
Her departure came after Raab resigned as Brexit secretary saying he “cannot in good conscience” support the deal agreed by the cabinet, kicking off what was expected to be a day of turmoil for the prime minister as she struggles to retain control of her party.
One of Raab’s junior ministers, Suella Braverman, a former chair of the hardline Brexit ERG group of Tory backbenchers, also quit, saying that the public would see the plans as “a betrayal”.
Downing Street insiders are keeping a particularly close eye on the international development secretary, Penny Mordaunt, who has also publicly voiced reservations in recent days. The Commons leader, Andrea Leadsom, has also talked of serious concerns and warned May she will struggle to get her plans through the Commons.
As the beleaguered prime minister prepared to give a statement to MPs, she also faced the threat of a no confidence vote from her own backbenchers amid rumours that the critical threshold of 48 MPs had been reached.
The departure of Raab, seen as a crucial figure in May’s attempts to sell her proposed deal to other Brexit-minded Tory MPs, follows the resignation earlier on Thursday of the junior Northern Ireland minister, Shailesh Vara.
In his resignation letter Raab said the proposed arrangement to avoid a border with Northern Ireland through a backstop arrangement is a “very real threat to the integrity of the United Kingdom”.
He added: “I cannot support an indefinite backstop arrangement where the EU holds a veto over our ability to exit.”
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