LONDON (REUTERS) - British Prime Minister Theresa May appointed Stephen Barclay, a junior health minister who voted to leave the European Union in a 2016 referendum, as her new Brexit Secretary on Friday (Nov 16).

May herself will personally oversee the last 10 days of negotiations with the EU on the future framework of relations, while Barclay will focus on the domestic readiness for Brexit and getting May's draft withdrawal agreement through parliament.

"He will be doing the domestic role," May's spokesman said.

Barclay replaced Dominic Raab who quit as Brexit minister on Thursday over the draft plan for leaving the EU.

Elsewhere, former interior minister Amber Rudd was appointed as work and pensions minister, replacing Esther McVey who also resigned over the plan.

Barclay, a 46-year-old former banker, was previously a financial services minister.

He qualified as a solicitor before working in financial regulation and then financial crime prevention. He was director of regulatory affairs and then head of anti-money laundering and sanctions at Barclays bank.</s>LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May’s draft divorce deal with the European Union was in jeopardy on Thursday after her Brexit secretary and other ministers quit in protest and her own eurosceptic lawmakers called for her to be ousted.

Just over 12 hours after May announced that her cabinet had agreed to the terms of the deal, Brexit minister Dominic Raab and work and pensions minister Esther McVey resigned.

Eurosceptics in May’s Conservative Party said they had submitted letters calling for a vote of no confidence in her leadership.

Two junior ministers, two ministerial aides and the Conservatives’ vice chairman also quit. Hostility to the deal from government and opposition lawmakers raised the risk that the deal would be rejected and Britain would leave the EU on March 29 without a safety net.

By seeking to preserve the closest possible ties with the EU, May has upset her party’s many advocates of a clean break, and Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which props up her minority government.

Meanwhile, proponents of closer relations with the EU in her own party and the Labour opposition say the deal squanders the advantages of membership for little gain.

Both sides say it effectively cedes power to the EU without securing the promised benefits of greater autonomy.

“It is ... mathematically impossible to get this deal through the House of Commons. The stark reality is that it was dead on arrival,” said Conservative Brexit-supporting lawmaker Mark Francois.

May, who scheduled a news conference for 1700 GMT, will need the backing of about 320 lawmakers in the 650-seat parliament to pass the deal.

The ultimate outcome remains uncertain. Scenarios include May’s deal ultimately winning approval; May losing her job; Britain leaving the bloc with no agreement; or even another referendum.

Analysts from U.S. bank Citi (C.N) said Britain was now likely either to stay in the EU or leave without a deal.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of a Conservative eurosceptic group in parliament, said he had formally requested a vote of no confidence in May, and that the draft was “worse than anticipated”.

At least 14 Conservative lawmakers openly said they had submitted such letters, although others could have done so secretly. Forty-eight letters are needed to trigger a challenge.

But the prime minister told parliament: “The choice is clear. We can choose to leave with no deal, we can risk no Brexit at all, or we can choose to unite and support the best deal that can be negotiated.”

Her spokesman said May intended to be prime minister when Britain leaves the bloc next year.

And a key ally, former interior minister Amber Rudd, told Sky News: “The problem isn’t the prime minister. The problem is the challenges she’s got to deliver in trying to pull together this Brexit. She’s the best person to do it.”

Boris Johnson, a leading critic of May’s Brexit plans who has done little to hide his political ambition, attended a meeting of the European Research Group, where Rees-Mogg and members discussed how many no-confidence letters had gone in.

Rees-Mogg told journalists the next prime minister should be a person who believed in Brexit.

In the markets, the pound GBP=D3 sank as far as 1.8 percent to $1.2751, its second biggest drop this year, while the main share index was down almost 0.5 percent. Ireland's main stock index plunged 3.8 percent.

British financial regulators called major banks asking for feedback on market conditions because of the sharp falls, sources said.

In parliament, lawmakers from all sides spent three hours mostly attacking the draft, agreed with the EU on Tuesday.

“No democratic nation has ever signed up to be bound by such an extensive regime, imposed externally without any democratic control over the laws to be applied, nor the ability to decide to exit the arrangement,” Raab said in his resignation letter.

Others said the so-called “Irish backstop”, to be used if no better way can be found to avoid future checks on the border between the British province of Northern Ireland and EU-member Ireland, would tear Britain apart, leaving Northern Ireland all but inside the EU’s single market.

It was this arrangement, which sees Britain and the EU establishing a single customs territory, that spurred most of the criticism.

The Labour Party said the government was “falling apart”.

EU leaders are ready to meet on Nov. 25 to sign off on the divorce deal, or Withdrawal Agreement, but French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe summed up the uncertainty when he said events in London raised concerns about whether it would be ratified.

“We need to prepare ourselves for a no-deal Brexit,” he said.

A group of EU states also raised objections to what has been agreed so far on fishing between the EU and UK after Brexit, diplomatic sources said.

Raab, 44, was named Brexit secretary in July after the resignation of his predecessor David Davis, who also quit in protest at May’s strategy.

At the heart of Raab’s criticism was the belief that the pursuit of a customs union with the EU would be the starting point for talks on the future relationship with the bloc, “severely prejudicing” what Britain could achieve.

He said he could not support an indefinite backstop arrangement, and that May’s plan threatened the integrity of the United Kingdom.

The DUP has threatened to pull its support from the minority government if the backstop means the province is treated differently from mainland Britain.</s>Stephen Barclay has been appointed as the new Brexit secretary – but the job has been downgraded to a “domestic” role, Downing Street has confirmed.

A No 10 spokesman said that Barclay, who backed leaving the EU, will focus on how prepared the UK is for exiting the bloc, while the prime minister takes charge of the “endgame” negotiations with EU leaders.

The shift is likely to rile Brexiteers who are demanding changes to the draft Withdrawal Agreement published on Thursday.

Kwasi Kwarteng, formerly parliamentary private secretary to Chancellor Philip Hammond, will be promoted to Brexit minister.

Barclay replaces Dominic Raab, who resigned on Thursday in protest of Theresa May’s draft deal.

It comes as backbench MPs were submitting letters to the party’s 1922 committee demanding a no confidence in the prime minister.

Barclay, the MP for North East Cambridgeshire, will be expected to sell the deal to UK businesses, voters and skeptical MPs who will play a key role in getting legislation through parliament.

Previously, Barclay was a Minister of State at the Department of Health and Social Care and was an Economic Secretary to the Treasury.

He also served as a whip under David Cameron.

During the final days of talks, May is hoping to flesh out the political declaration on the UK-EU future relationship – something she hopes will make a final Brexit deal more palatable to MPs, a majority of whom look set to vote it down when it comes before Parliament later this year.

The Withdrawal Agreement, which includes the controversial Northern Ireland backstop customs arrangement, would not be on the table during the remaining talks.

The No 10 spokesman said: “[Stephen Barclay] will be dealing with the domestic preparedness for Brexit. In terms of the negotiations, we are in the endgame now with ten days left, the prime minister will be doing those negotiations.”

MPs will vote on the Brexit deal in early December, before a European Council summit is due to take place on December 13 in Brussels.

Barclay, a qualified solicitor, held numerous roles in business before becoming an MP, including legal work for Axa Insurance, as a regulator for the Financial Services Authority and within the anti-money laundering department of Barclays Bank.

The announcement was made just shortly after it was revealed Amber Rudd had been appointed Work and Pensions Secretary.

Stephen Hammond replaces Barclay as health and social care minister and John Penrose will become Northern Ireland minister.</s>LONDON (Reuters) - Business leaders expressed growing alarm on Thursday as a draft Brexit agreement seen as the only chance of preserving some stability in UK-EU trading threatened to unravel, sending stock prices and the pound plunging.

Just 12 hours after British Prime Minister Theresa May announced that her cabinet had agreed to the terms of the draft agreement, Brexit minister Dominic Raab and work and pensions minister Esther McVey quit, saying they could not support it.

Their departures and those of other, junior ministers, revived the spectre for business of Britain leaving the European Union without a deal next March, and sent shares in British housebuilders, retailers and banks tumbling.

"The political situation remains uncertain," German carmaker BMW said in a statement. "We must therefore continue to prepare for the worst-case scenario, which is what a no-deal Brexit would represent.

"We continue to call on all sides to work towards a final agreement which maintains the truly frictionless trade on which our international production network is based."

The European Union is Britain's biggest trading partner, accounting for 44 percent of UK exports and 53 percent of imports to the UK.

After 45 years of membership, industries including defence, cars and aerospace have created intricate supply chains that rely on smooth, "just-in-time" delivery of thousands of parts across the sea that divides Britain from the continent.

Business leaders fear that the country could stumble towards a no-deal Brexit where border checks block ports and fracture the supply chains that support the likes of Rolls-Royce

Karen Betts, the head of the Scotch Whisky Association, said a no-deal Brexit would cause "considerable difficulties" for the industry and increase cost and complexity. It accounts for around 20 percent of all UK food and drink exports.

A senior executive at one of Britain's biggest banks said this was the most disastrous government he had ever seen.

"The rest of the world is looking at us and laughing. It is time to have some stability so business can get some certainty. This is what the country needs."

Industry bosses who had been briefed on the draft agreement by ministers late on Wednesday had broadly welcomed it as the best chance of a compromise that would secure a transition period and avert the chaos of no deal at all.

May's office also released statements from a number of major companies such as Diageo

"Most business people ultimately are pragmatists and this is about playing the cards we have been dealt rather than wishing for a better hand," Roger Carr, chairman of BAE Systems, told BBC Radio.

Iain Anderson, executive chairman of public affairs firm Cicero, which represents many finance companies, said although most executives did not like May's deal they realised it was now the only game in town.

"Business is watching with horror the resignations now taking place," he said. "Yesterday we had a plan and stability and today we do not.

"There is now no time to negotiate another deal. We thought we had stability - now we have instability writ large."

The UK chief of German industrial group Siemens , which employs 15,000 people in the UK, reiterated his call to get behind the draft agreement even as senior politicians called for May to quit.

"We hope all sides keep calm, look at the facts, and move to support this draft to provide UK business with greater certainty," Juergen Maier said in an emailed statement.

Even if May survives, her chances of winning a vote in parliament to approve the draft agreement are seen as slim.

Lawmakers across the political spectrum have said May's deal will leave Britain bound by EU rules without having any say. Many have argued it will also damage the integrity of the United Kingdom by aligning Northern Ireland with the rest of the EU in order to avoid a hard border with EU-member Ireland.

Many executives spoken to by Reuters were trying to guess what could happen next, either a national election, a second referendum or the extension of the negotiating period.

One senior executive at a FTSE 100 company was still holding out hope however that lawmakers would eventually be persuaded to vote for the deal when it comes before parliament before the end of the year.

"We're going to need the market to throw up and scare them all into voting for it," he said. The pound was down 1.8 percent against the dollar in early evening trading.

The CEO of French outdoor advertising company JCDecaux , which runs London's bus-shelter advertising and makes 10 percent of its sales in Britain, called the situation "obviously very serious".

"Today's events reinforce the uncertainties in the market," Jean-Charles Decaux told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of an industry conference in Barcelona.

Martin Sorrell, ex-CEO and founder of ad agency group WPP and one of Britain's best-known businessmen, said the country was in a state. "The situation this morning saps the confidence of the City and the country," he told Reuters.

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.</s>After the resignations of Dominic Raab and Esther McVey, Theresa May is looking to shore up her top team. Amber Rudd is back in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for the Department for Work and Pensions after 201 days on the backbenches. Brexiteer out, Remainer in…

There have now been 14 work and pensions secretaries since the department was created in 2001, and a whopping six since March 2016.

In September Rudd came out to say a second referendum is preferable to a no deal Brexit. Cabinet could get choppy.</s>Forty-eight letters are needed to trigger a vote, and Leading euroskeptic Steve Baker said on Friday he believes the threshold has been reached. But the only person who knows the accurate count is Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservatives, and there's been no announcement from him. The latest tally of Tories who have announced they've sent letters is 22. Am I going to see this through? Yes. In an effort to seize control of the political agenda, May on Friday named a junior official, Stephen Barclay, as her new Brexit Secretary after Dominic Raab quit the role a day earlier. And she brought former home secretary Amber Rudd, one of the stalwarts of the Remain campaign in the 2016 referendum, back into the cabinet to replace Esther McVey, the Brexit supporter who quit on Thursday as Work and Pensions Secretary. Crucially, May stripped the Brexit post of responsibility for the negotiations with the EU. Instead, Barclay – who supported Leave in 2016 – will focus on the domestic legislation to prepare Britain for its scheduled departure in March.

She also promoted Stephen Hammond, a fervent pro-European who has voted against the government in a bid to maintain closer ties with the bloc. The appointments took place against the unprecedented backdrop of five cabinet ministers plotting to overhaul the agreement May has secured with the bloc. Andrea Leadsom, who is convening the group, Liam Fox, Chris Grayling, Penny Mordaunt and Michael Gove are trying to draft an alternative plan that they can support and so stay in the government, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday. Leadsom, Mordaunt and Gove were all strongly touted to resign and join the seven members of May's administration who quit their posts yesterday. But instead, they've remained in the cabinet, for now, to try and secure the changes they want to Britain's Brexit strategy from within the government. They will struggle to make a difference, as the EU has all but closed the door on any changes. May is sticking resolutely to her strategy in the face of widespread hostility from opposition parties, her supposed allies in Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, and members of her own Conservatives. She took three hours of questions in the House of Commons on Thursday in a session that made it clear she'll struggle to secure the approval she needs from the chamber. If she fails, the risk is that Britain tumbles out of the bloc in March without any agreement to smooth the process.

Brexiteers loathe the 585-page withdrawal deal as it looks set to keep Britain in a customs union with the EU even after a 21-month planned transition period. Under the plan – a "backstop" to protect the peace process in Northern Ireland and ensure the border remains open with Ireland – Britain would have to heed EU competition and state aid rules, without any say over how they are set. Moreover, the country wouldn't be able to unilaterally pull out of the arrangement. That, say Brexiteers, is worse than EU membership and would make Britain a "vassal" state, in perpetual limbo and unable to escape the bloc's influence. The Confederation of British Industry threw its weight behind the prime minister's strategy and issued a warning on Friday to lawmakers who oppose it. The risk of no deal is already causing economic harm as companies of all sizes stockpile goods and components and move jobs and investment out of Britain, it said. "Despite the political noise at Westminster, the real life implications for people and regions across the U.K. are what really matter," according to the CBI. "Compromising is essential to avoid a damaging no deal and move on to the future. For the sake of the prosperity of our country, we must not go backwards."

It's been the most dangerous week yet for the PM, and she's had many. May has doggedly weathered all the storms so far, and she told journalists late on Thursday she wouldn't quit without a fight. "Am I going to see this through? Yes." But she's not out of the woods. There could yet be more letters calling for her to go, and even if she survives a leadership challenge, she still has to work out how to get her deal through Parliament.</s>LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May appointed Stephen Barclay, a junior health minister who voted to leave the European Union in a 2016 referendum, as her new Brexit Secretary on Friday.

May herself will personally oversee the last 10 days of negotiations with the EU on the future framework of relations, while Barclay will focus on the domestic readiness for Brexit and getting May’s draft withdrawal agreement through parliament.

“He will be doing the domestic role,” May’s spokesman said.

Barclay replaced Dominic Raab who quit as Brexit minister on Thursday over the draft plan for leaving the EU.

Elsewhere, former interior minister Amber Rudd was appointed as work and pensions minister, replacing Esther McVey who also resigned over the plan.

Barclay, a 46-year-old former banker, was previously a financial services minister.

He qualified as a solicitor before working in financial regulation and then financial crime prevention. He was director of regulatory affairs and then head of anti-money laundering and sanctions at Barclays bank.</s>Amber Rudd is back in cabinet as the new work and pensions secretary after Esther McVey resigned yesterday, according to Downing Street.

Former home secretary Rudd is set to replace McVey after she walked out in protest over Theresa May’s Brexit agreement.

Downing Street said: ‘The Queen has been pleased to approve the appointment of Rt Hon Amber Rudd MP to be Secretary of State for Work and Pensions’.

Rudd stepped down as home secretary in April over her handling of the Windrush generation scandal.

She had faced growing pressure to resign amid claims she misled parliament over targets for removing illegal migrants.

Mcvey quit in response to the EU withdrawal plan agreed by UK and EU negotiators.

In a resignation letter, McVey wrote: ‘The deal you put before the cabinet yesterday does not honour the result of the referendum.

‘Indeed, it doesn’t meet the tests you set from the outset of your premiership.’

She added: ‘It threatens the integrity of the United Kingdom, which as a unionist is a risk I cannot be party to.’

Rudd is the sixth work and pensions secretary.

This is a breaking new story… more to follow</s>Esther McVey joined the list of ministers resigning over Theresa May's botched Brexit deal.

In her parting missive, she attacked the Prime Minister for breaking promises to the public by failing to deliver to the party promises she made at the outset of negotiations.

Here is the full text of her resignation letter

"There is no more important task for this Government than delivering on the United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union.

This is a matter of trust.

It is about the future of our country and the integrity of our democracy.

The deal you put before the Cabinet yesterday does not honour the result of the referendum. Indeed, it doesn't meet the tests you set from the outset of your premiership.

Repeatedly you have said that we must regain control of our money, our borders and our laws and develop our own independent trade policy.

I have always supported you to deliver on those objectives. Even after Chequers when you knew I shared the concerns of a very significant number of colleagues, I believed that we could still work collectively to honour the will of the British people and secure the right outcome for the future of our country.

This deal fails to do this.

Brexit deal live: Theresa May in turmoil as Dominic Raab and Esther McVey resign

The proposals put before Cabinet, which will soon be judged by the entire country, means handing over around £39bn to the EU without anything in return.

It will trap us in a customs union, despite you specifically promising the British people we would not be. It will bind the hands of not only this, but future Governments in pursuing genuine free trade policies. We wouldn't be taking back control, we would be handing over control to the EU and even to a third country for arbitration.

It also threatens the integrity of the United Kingdom, which as a Unionist is a risk I cannot be party to.

The British people have always been ahead of politicians on this issue, and it will be no good trying to pretend to them that this deal honours the result of the referendum when it is obvious to everyone it doesn't.

We have gone from no deal is better than a bad deal, to any deal is better than no deal.

I cannot defend this, and I cannot vote for this deal. I could not look my constituents in the eye were I to do that. I therefore have no alternative but to resign from the Government.

It has been a huge honour to serve as Secretary of State for Work & Pensions, and I am immensely proud of the part I have played in the record levels of employment we have seen in all parts of the U.K. Youth unemployment has halved since 2010, and we now have record number of women and BAME in work and since 2013, 973,000 more disabled people in work.

With employment over 3.3million more than in 2010 we have helped 1,000 more people into work each and every day since we took office.

I am extremely grateful to you for appointing me to the role, and for the support you have given to me, not least in the run up to the budget, ensuring Universal Credit got a much needed injection of £4.5billion. That has made my decision a greater wrench.

However, in politics you have to be true to the public and also true to yourself. Had I stayed in the Government and supported this deal with the EU I wouldn't be doing that. "</s>LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May’s draft divorce deal with the European Union was in jeopardy on Thursday after her Brexit secretary and other ministers quit in protest and her own eurosceptic lawmakers called for her to be ousted.

Just over 12 hours after May announced that her cabinet had agreed to the terms of the deal, Brexit minister Dominic Raab and work and pensions minister Esther McVey resigned.

Eurosceptics in May’s Conservative Party said they had submitted letters calling for a vote of no confidence in her leadership.

Two junior ministers, two ministerial aides and the Conservatives’ vice chairman also quit. Hostility to the deal from government and opposition lawmakers raised the risk that the deal would be rejected and Britain would leave the EU on March 29 without a safety net.

By seeking to preserve the closest possible ties with the EU, May has upset her party’s many advocates of a clean break, and Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which props up her minority government.

Meanwhile, proponents of closer relations with the EU in her own party and the Labour opposition say the deal squanders the advantages of membership for little gain.

Both sides say it effectively cedes power to the EU without securing the promised benefits of greater autonomy.

“It is ... mathematically impossible to get this deal through the House of Commons. The stark reality is that it was dead on arrival,” said Conservative Brexit-supporting lawmaker Mark Francois.

May, who scheduled a news conference for 1700 GMT, will need the backing of about 320 lawmakers in the 650-seat parliament to pass the deal.

The ultimate outcome remains uncertain. Scenarios include May’s deal ultimately winning approval; May losing her job; Britain leaving the bloc with no agreement; or even another referendum.

Analysts from U.S. bank Citi said Britain was now likely either to stay in the EU or leave without a deal.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of a Conservative eurosceptic group in parliament, said he had formally requested a vote of no confidence in May, and that the draft was “worse than anticipated”.

At least 14 Conservative lawmakers openly said they had submitted such letters, although others could have done so secretly. Forty-eight letters are needed to trigger a challenge.

But the prime minister told parliament: “The choice is clear. We can choose to leave with no deal, we can risk no Brexit at all, or we can choose to unite and support the best deal that can be negotiated.”

Her spokesman said May intended to be prime minister when Britain leaves the bloc next year.

And a key ally, former interior minister Amber Rudd, told Sky News: “The problem isn’t the prime minister. The problem is the challenges she’s got to deliver in trying to pull together this Brexit. She’s the best person to do it.”

Boris Johnson, a leading critic of May’s Brexit plans who has done little to hide his political ambition, attended a meeting of the European Research Group, where Rees-Mogg and members discussed how many no-confidence letters had gone in.

Rees-Mogg told journalists the next prime minister should be a person who believed in Brexit.

In the markets, the pound sank as far as 1.8 percent to $1.2751, its second biggest drop this year, while the main share index was down almost 0.5 percent. Ireland’s main stock index plunged 3.8 percent.

British financial regulators called major banks asking for feedback on market conditions because of the sharp falls, sources said.

In parliament, lawmakers from all sides spent three hours mostly attacking the draft, agreed with the EU on Tuesday.

“No democratic nation has ever signed up to be bound by such an extensive regime, imposed externally without any democratic control over the laws to be applied, nor the ability to decide to exit the arrangement,” Raab said in his resignation letter.

Others said the so-called “Irish backstop”, to be used if no better way can be found to avoid future checks on the border between the British province of Northern Ireland and EU-member Ireland, would tear Britain apart, leaving Northern Ireland all but inside the EU’s single market.

It was this arrangement, which sees Britain and the EU establishing a single customs territory, that spurred most of the criticism.

The Labour Party said the government was “falling apart”.

EU leaders are ready to meet on Nov. 25 to sign off on the divorce deal, or Withdrawal Agreement, but French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe summed up the uncertainty when he said events in London raised concerns about whether it would be ratified.

“We need to prepare ourselves for a no-deal Brexit,” he said.

A group of EU states also raised objections to what has been agreed so far on fishing between the EU and UK after Brexit, diplomatic sources said.

Raab, 44, was named Brexit secretary in July after the resignation of his predecessor David Davis, who also quit in protest at May’s strategy.

At the heart of Raab’s criticism was the belief that the pursuit of a customs union with the EU would be the starting point for talks on the future relationship with the bloc, “severely prejudicing” what Britain could achieve.

He said he could not support an indefinite backstop arrangement, and that May’s plan threatened the integrity of the United Kingdom.

The DUP has threatened to pull its support from the minority government if the backstop means the province is treated differently from mainland Britain.
British Prime Minister Theresa May appoints Stephen Barclay as Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, and Amber Rudd as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions following yesterday's resignations of Dominic Raab and Esther McVey.