United Kingdom: Brexit Minister resigns, another hard blow for Boris Johnson

The situation does not get better for Boris Johnson. Already weakened, the British Prime Minister lost his Secretary of State for Brexit on Saturday evening, citing political disagreements. After the information was revealed by the newspaper Mail on Sunday, Downing Street confirmed it by publishing David Frost’s resignation letter and the Head of Government’s response.

Lamenting that his resignation was leaked to the press, David Frost announced in his letter that it was effective immediately. According to Mail on Sunday, Boris Johnson had first succeeded in convincing him to stay until January.

The newspaper points out that David Frost cited the new restrictions to fight the coronavirus, the tax hike and the policy followed to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 to explain his departure. “You know my concerns about the current direction of things”, wrote David Frost to Boris Johnson, stressing that, with Brexit assured, “the challenge for the government now is to realize the opportunities it gives us”.

A supporter of a hard line against the European Union, David Frost led the negotiations with the European Union on the Brexit agreement for London and then its implementation, especially concerning the application of the controversial protocol on the North Ireland. The latter establishes a new customs regime for this British province, which de facto maintains it in the single market and the European customs union.

The United Kingdom and the EU have been leading bitter talks for several months to iron out their differences on the implementation of the text, effective since the beginning of the year. While David Frost has taken an inflexible stance in demanding that any recourse to European justice for the settlement of disputes be ruled out, the government recently seemed to soften its position on this matter.

Boris Johnson said to himself “sorry” of David Frost’s resignation, expressing his gratitude for the work he has done. In the ranks of the majority, MP Andrew Bridgen considered that Boris Johnson was a “decisive moment”. “He must change or go”, he told Times Radio. On Twitter, this ardent Brexiter highlighted that the head of government was “Running out of time and friends to keep the promises and discipline of a true Conservative government”.

For the former North Irish Prime Minister Arlene Foster, pushed to leave in April because considered too moderate, the resignation is “huge for those of us who believed he would keep his promises for Northern Ireland”. Labor Deputy Leader of the Opposition Angela Rayner took to Twitter to say that the government was “in total chaos precisely when the country goes through weeks of uncertainty.” “Boris Johnson is not up to the task. We deserve better than this buffoonery”, she added.

According to the site Conservative Home, influential in the majority, “It is impossible to interpret such a formal attack on Boris Johnson’s record other than as cooperation, at least, in attempts to bring him down”.

Two years after his electoral triumph on the promise to achieve Brexit, Boris Johnson finds himself surrounded by scandals and has suffered a sling this week from his camp over measures against Covid-19. Already one of the most affected in Europe by the pandemic, the United Kingdom is facing an outbreak of contaminations linked to the Omicron variant.

To counter this “tsunami”, Boris Johnson is banking on a massive vaccine booster campaign and slight restrictions. But he suffered a sling in his own camp Tuesday in Parliament: 99 deputies from his camp voted against the establishment of a health pass for major events, deemed liberticidal, a measure finally adopted thanks to the votes of the Labor opposition. On Saturday, 90,418 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded, down slightly from the day before (more than 93,000) and after three consecutive days of new daily records.

Media revelations in recent weeks of several downing street parties in the winter of 2020 as Britons were under severe restrictions designed to curb the coronavirus pandemic, have also added oil on the fire.

Video of a press conference rehearsal has leaked, showing one of Boris Johnson’s hilarious advisers joking about one of the parties. Allegra Stratton has since resigned and an internal investigation is underway, with potentially devastating results expected in the coming days. Newspapers The Guardian and The Independent claim Boris Johnson further participated in a pot in Downing Street on May 15, 2020, despite health restrictions.

The loss of a Tory stronghold in a by-election in England on Friday finished tarnishing the Prime Minister’s image, with British media seeing a “humiliation”. This election in North Shropshire, a very rural constituency in central England long held by the Conservatives, was won by the Liberal Democrats with 47% of the vote. It was triggered by the resignation of an elected official sanctioned for a lobbying affair, which Boris Johnson is accused of having wanted to protect, before backing down.