NI Minister Shailesh Vara Quits Following Brexit Draft Deal

Northern Ireland Minister Shailesh Vara has resigned from his post, stating that he cannot support Theresa May's Brexit agreement, which "leaves the UK in a halfway house with no time limit on when we will finally be a sovereign nation".

Mr Vara was the first Minister to quit following a Cabinet meeting in London on Wednesday 14 November, and was swiftly followed by Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab.

In a statement posted online on Thursday, the former NI Minister said the people "deserve better" than the deal being offered.

"We are a proud nation and it is a sad day when we are reduced to obeying rules made by other countries who have shown that they do not have our best interests at heart," the Tory MP for North West Cambridgeshire added.

Mr Vara was promoted to the Government post in July, having previously been a parliamentary private secretary in the Northern Ireland Office.

Meanwhile, the announcement that Dominic Raab has also quit poses a huge blow to the Conservative leader.

The Brexit Secretary took over in the summer after David Davis resigned in protest to Mrs May's withdrawal strategy, and said he "cannot in good conscience support the terms proposed for our deal with the EU".

In his letter to the Prime Minister, which he posted on Twitter, Mr Raab said the deal represented a "very real threat to the integrity of the United Kingdom" because of the provisions made for Northern Ireland.

He added that he could not accept "an indefinite backstop arrangement" for the Irish border.



(JG)