The warning, issued by Mikhail Popov, deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, follows an incident last month when British warship HMS Defender exercised what London said were internationally recognized freedom of navigation rules in Ukrainian territorial waters near Crimea.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and says the waters around it belong to Moscow now despite most countries continuing to recognize the peninsula as Ukrainian.

It protested strongly against the British move at the time with a coastguard vessel firing warning shots and summoned the British ambassador for an explanation.

Popov, in an interview in the state Rossiiyskaya Gazeta newspaper, said Britain’s behaviour and its subsequent reaction to the incident was bewildering.

In particular, he criticized suggestions from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab, the foreign minister, that the incident could be repeated.

“Similar actions will be thwarted with the harshest methods in future by Russia regardless of the violator’s state allegiance. We suggest our opponents think hard about whether it’s worth organizing such provocations given the capabilities of Russia’s armed forces,” said Popov.

“It’s not the members of the British government who will be in the ships and vessels used for prevocational ends,” he added. “And it’s in that context that I want to ask a question of the same Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab – what will they say to the families of the British sailors who will get hurt in the name of such ‘great’ ideas?”

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/russia-warns-britain-sail-near-crimea-again-your-sailors-will-get-hurt-2021-07-14/?rpc=401&

The post Russia warns Britain: Sail near Crimea again and your sailors will get hurt first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The prime minister also faced calls for transparency from thousands of teachers who joined an online meeting to demand clarity over plans to reopen schools in England next month.

Greater openness will help maintain public support as the U.K. eases its lockdown, the House of Commons science committee said in a letter to the prime minister Tuesday. So far only 28 of 120 papers consulted by the U.K.’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies has been published, they said.

“The strength of British science and the prominent role that scientific advice has played during the pandemic can be an important source of public confidence,” Greg Clark, chairman of the committee and a member of Johnson’s Conservative Party, wrote in the letter. “Without visibility of the scientific advice, it will be difficult to corroborate the Government’s assertion that it always follows scientific advice.”

Confused Messages

Polls show support slipping for Johnson’s response to the virus, which has seen the U.K. record the second-highest number of deaths in the world, after a week of confused messages over the relaxation of the lockdown. Alongside other easing measures, the government wants schools to reopen to some pupils June 1, but teaching unions say they have yet to be shown evidence such a move would be safe.

The National Education Union said 20,000 members joined a zoom call with its general secretaries Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney on Monday evening during which they answered questions about the union’s demands for more details on safety provision and scientific evidence before they will back plans to restart classes.

The government argues reopening schools is vital to supporting the poorest children and protecting vulnerable pupils who are locked down in unsafe homes. Ministers say the risk of transmission from children to adults is low, but Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said his 31,000 members want to see the evidence.

‘Route Map’

“It’s been asserted by the Government publicly over the weekend that there isn’t the level of risk that we fear,” Whiteman told BBC Radio on Monday. “However, we haven’t yet seen the scientific underpinning of that.”

The devolved administrations in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales have been slower to lift restrictions on their populations as divisions grow between the strategies of London and regional capitals. Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she will publish a “route map” Thursday, while Northern Ireland said it will allow small socially-distanced gatherings outside and the reopening of places of worship for individual prayer. Schools will stay closed.

The science committee also criticized Johnson’s government for failing to learn from the experience of other countries as it attempted to increase testing capacity in the early stages of the outbreak in the U.K.

“Capacity was not increased early enough or boldly enough,” Clark wrote. “Capacity drove strategy, rather than strategy driving capacity.”

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Monday that testing will be extended to anyone over 5 years old showing symptoms and told Parliament the U.K. is ready to start a national tracing program to control the disease.

But while 21,000 contact tracers have been recruited, including 7,500 health-care professionals who will give clinical advice to call handlers, the national launch of a contact-tracing mobile phone app has been delayed, in a setback to the tracing effort.

‘Get a Grip’

A major expansion of the U.K.’s testing and tracing program is a key feature of its strategy to relax the virus lockdown, as the government seeks to emulate countries like South Korea and Germany in identifying where the virus is spreading so it can impose targeted restrictions. Virus tests were previously only available to certain groups of people, such as workers deemed ‘essential’ and the over-65s.

A mobile phone app, which would form a crucial part of the tracing program, was supposed to be ready in mid-May. It is now planned to be released nationally within “weeks,” Johnson’s spokesman James Slack told reporters on Monday.

The app, which is still being tested on the Isle of Wight, informs users when they’ve come into close contact with someone who may have had the virus. Ministers previously said it would be a key component of the U.K.’s strategy to relax lockdown measures.

“We are learning all the way as we go through this pandemic, not just on the scientific side but on the innovation that we need to get a grip on it,” First Secretary of State Dominic Raab said at the daily Coronavirus briefing on Monday. “We are making good progress on the testing and on the tracing and on the pilot in the Isle of Wight.”

Source: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/boris-johnson-under-pressure-to-be-more-open-on-virus-strategy-1.1438032

The post Boris Johnson Under Pressure to Be More Open on Virus Strategy first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Bill Browder — the British businessman and anti-Vladimir Putin activist who has successfully pushed for sanctions on Russia for its human rights violations — spoke with Salon to analyze why Russian officials and media outlets are condemning President Donald Trump’s decision to have a drone strike assassinate Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.

“I think that more than anything, Putin is absolutely terrified by the assassination of Soleimani,” Browder told Salon by email on Saturday. “If the US can go after a high-level military enemy from the air with drones and kill him, it means that the US can go after any of their political and military enemies in the same way. At some point, it could be Putin’s turn.”

He added, “Putin was traumatized after Gaddafi’s killing and this opens up a whole new range of terrible possibilities for him. Putin only respects extreme violence and power and this speaks to him like nothing else.”

In the aftermath of Soleimani’s assassination, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs referred to Soleimani’s killing as an “adventurist” step by the Trump administration and said “Soleimani was devoted to protecting Iran’s national interests. We express our sincere condolences to the Iranian people.” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Soleimani’s assassination “grossly violates international law” and claimed that “the targeted actions of a UN member state to eliminate officials of another UN member state, moreover, on the territory of a third sovereign state without its knowledge, flagrantly violate the principles of international law and deserve condemnation.”

Meanwhile, a Russian state television reporter, Stanislav Khamdokhov of RIA Novosti, described the assassination as “a terrorist act” by the American government and RIA Novosti columnist Irina Alksnis argued that “Americans are steadily losing political positions in the Middle East. Russia, Turkey, and Iran are stepping on their heels. Washington simply does not have the strength to challenge Moscow in Syria or Tehran in Iraq.”

Russia is not alone in reacting negatively to the assassination of Soleimani. The Iraqi parliament voted on Sunday to kick American troops out of their country, while the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement through a spokesperson that he is “deeply concerned” about the assassination and believes “this is a moment in which leaders must exercise maximum restraint. The world cannot afford another war in the Gulf.”

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer told a news conference in Berlin, “The American action was a reaction to a whole series of military provocations which Iran is responsible for. We are at a dangerous point of escalation. It’s now about contributing to a de-escalation with calm and restraint.” Similarly, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said that “we have always recognized the aggressive threat posed by the Iranian Quds force led by Qassem Soleimani. Following his death, we urge all parties to de-escalate. Further conflict is in none of our interests.”

By contrast, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that Soleimani was “responsible for the death of American citizens and many other innocent people. He was planning more such attacks. President Trump deserves all the credit for acting swiftly, forcefully and decisively.” He concluded that “Israel stands with the United States in its just struggle for peace, security, and self-defense.”

MATTHEW ROZSA

Matthew Rozsa is a breaking news writer for Salon. He holds an MA in History from Rutgers University-Newark and is ABD in his Ph.D. program in History at Lehigh University. His work has appeared in Mic, Quartz, and MSNBC.

MORE FROM MATTHEW ROZSA

Source: https://www.salon.com/2020/01/05/exclusive-anti-putin-activist-says-russian-government-likely-scared-by-trumps-attack-on-iran/

The post Exclusive: Anti-Putin activist says Russian government likely scared by Trump’s attack on Iran first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Britain’s new Prime Minister Boris Johnson makes a statement in the House of Commons in London on Thursday. (Photo: AFP)

On Tuesday last week, Boris Johnson won the second round of the Conservative Party leadership election against Jeremy Hunt. He won convincingly, with 66 percent of the vote of the membership. In the early afternoon of Wednesday, Theresa May tendered her resignation as prime minister to the Queen. Later that afternoon the Queen invited Boris Johnson, as leader of the largest party in the House of Commons, to become the 14th to hold that office in her reign. Constitutional decorum having been observed, savagery then followed.

Boris Johnson undertook a reshuffle of his Cabinet, more vicious and spiteful than any seen before. More Cabinet ministers were sacked than had ever been sacked in any previous reshuffle — by far. The main criterion for dismissal appears to have been support for Jeremy Hunt. The main criterion for elevation appears to have been loyalty to Boris Johnson.

The whole process has more resembled a display of pique by a spoilt brat than the assembly of a competent government. To give some examples — the home secretary is now Priti Patel. She had been dismissed from her previous Cabinet position — secretary of state for international development — for pursuing her own foreign policy, in private and unauthorized meetings with Israeli officials while ostensibly on holiday. Dominic Raab is now foreign secretary. Previously, as Cabinet minister for Brexit, it had been revealed that he didn’t appreciate that most of the UK’s trade with the European Union — by far the UK’s largest trading partner — goes through the port of Dover. To top it all, Dominic Cummings, the previous chief strategist for the Leave campaign during the referendum, has been appointed to be Boris Johnson’s chief adviser. The fact he had also been found to be in contempt of Parliament for refusing to answer questions on the use of fake news by the Leave campaign was clearly irrelevant.

The net result of the process has been a takeover of the government by fundamentalist Brexiters, who believe as articles of faith the slogans deployed by Boris Johnson during the leadership election — Brexit on October 31 — “deal or no deal”, “do or die”. Whether Boris Johnson actually believes them, though, is uncertain.

Posing as a hard Brexiter certainly won Boris Johnson the Conservative leadership election. Painting the Conservative Party as a hard Brexit party also makes tactical sense — at least in the short term. The Conservative Party faces an existential threat from the Brexit Party. It was founded only a few months ago by the highly effective and populist Nigel Farage as the party of a “hard” Brexit. By a hard Brexit it means a Brexit with minimal links to the EU, and above all one shorn of the hated “backstop”. The “backstop” is a device which was inserted into the deal with the EU negotiated by Ms. May. In the event that the EU and the UK fail to reach a new free trade deal, the UK will remain in the EU customs union. This is necessary to preserve the soft border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, a foundational pillar of the Northern Irish peace process. This uncompromising stance has been frighteningly attractive to large swathes of Conservative voters.

By repositioning the Conservative Party as a party of hard Brexit, Boris Johnson can hope to blunt the Brexit Party’s appeal. If he delivers a hard Brexit, the Brexit Party’s raison d’être disappears. He is unlikely to do so since the EU has already explicitly refused to remove the backstop from the deal. The next step would then be to present a hard Brexit to Parliament. If Parliament refuses to endorse it, Boris Johnson can challenge Parliament to vote him out of office and trigger a general election. In the election, Boris Johnson can campaign for a hard Brexit, crowd out the Brexit Party and win a majority. In the short term, then, that tactic leads to victory. In the longer term, though, it is playing with fire.

A few weeks ago, I put this scenario to a senior Conservative MP and brave supporter of the cause of remaining in the EU. He didn’t think a general election would necessarily follow a defeat for Boris Johnson. Labour votes would be necessary to call one, but the Labour Party is in no state to fight a general election. Its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, is deeply unpopular with the public and its Brexit policy is a masterpiece of casuistry and obfuscation. It, too, is leaching votes — to the explicitly pro-EU Liberal Democrats and Green Party. It probably does not want an early general election. So while Parliament might vote down a hard Brexit, it might not vote for a general election. Instead, it could put in office a government of national unity, supported by a coalition of moderate Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and the bulk of the Labour Party. That government could then negotiate a soft Brexit or even call a referendum.

Even if the moves to install a national unity government were to fail and a general election was to ensue, the result is not a given. Recent opinion polls suggest that Boris Johnson has had some success in attracting away Conservative voters from the Brexit Party, but the dynamics of a campaign could change that. The delays and arguments in Parliament have allowed Mr. Farage to propagate a false, but persuasive, narrative of a self-serving elite thwarting the people’s will. Further delays and arguments will only make it easier for Mr. Farage to peddle that myth.

If a general election produces another hung Parliament, it will be no more willing to pass a hard Brexit than the present one. Boris Johnson will then have failed. If on the other hand, Boris Johnson wins a majority, he will face a monumental decision. A hard Brexit will certainly wreak massive economic devastation and will probably lead to the breakup of the United Kingdom. The Scots and Northern Irish had both voted convincingly to remain in the EU and would be likely to secede. The Welsh could follow soon after. At that point then Boris Johnson will be put to the test: If he sticks to his word, he destroys the country. If he goes back on it, he destroys himself.

Source: https://www.asianage.com/opinion/oped/010819/deal-or-no-deal-brexit-boris-playing-with-fire.html

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A key ally of Angela Merkel has called for Europe to set up its own naval task force in the Persian Gulf independent of the US.

Amid a widening divide between Western allies over how to deal with Iran, Norbert Röttgen called on Thursday for France and Germany to lead a European mission to protect shipping from Iran.

The UK has sought to build consensus for an international task force following the seizure of a British-flagged tanker by Iran.

But France and Germany have rejected calls to contribute warships to a US-led mission over concerns at Donald Trump’s aggressive stance towards Iran.

The post Merkel ally calls for Europe to go it alone in the Gulf first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Boris Johnson was born in New York City to British parents, but renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2016 amid a taxes crackdown by the Internal Revenue Service on the global earnings of dual nationals. He last lived in the United States as a five-year-old.

“Boris Johnson is a friend of mine. He has been very, very nice to me, very supportive,” President Donald Trump said in July last year after Johnson resigned as May’s foreign secretary over her handling of Britain’s attempt to leave the European Union – Brexit.

Like Trump, Johnson appears to enjoy the limelight and attracts controversy wherever he goes. He was once forced into an apology to the nation of Papua New Guinea for comparing infighting in his Conservative Party to “Papua New Guinea-style orgies of cannibalism and chief-killing.” He was fired as a journalist for making up a quote.

May’s fraught three-year tenure in office will officially end on June 7, she announced Friday. The 62-year-old Conservative Party leader was forced from power for similar reasons. She will remain as a caretaker prime minister until Conservative Party lawmakers and members vote to elect a successor. In Britain, the public elects a party, not a candidate, meaning the government stays the same for now, until there is an election. The process is expected to take about six weeks. First, Conservative Party lawmakers hold a series of votes to whittle the field down to two candidates. Then, those two candidates are voted on by party members across the country.

Theresa May: Britain’s embattled leader resigns premiership amid Brexit deadlock

Experts say that whoever ends up as Britain’s next leader won’t dramatically rewrite one of the closest diplomatic, economic and military alliances in history: The “special relationship” between the U.S. and Britain, a phrase and diplomatic modus operandi coined by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1946.

British-American goodwill has accrued through two world wars, the Cold War, several conflicts in the Middle East and close cooperation in fighting international terrorism. Often, it’s said, the two nations are only divided by a common language.

Trump has described his relationship with May as the “highest level of special,” but the two leaders did clash on the substance of policy – his Muslim travel ban, in particular –and the new partnership is not expected to be all plain sailing and photo ops, either.

“The special relationship hasn’t been so special recently,” said Tim Bale, a politics professor at Queen Mary, University of London.

“Partly because the president couldn’t stop himself criticizing the way May had gone about Brexit, and partly because she and other British politicians have been a little wary about associating themselves too closely with a guy who most Brits (rightly or wrongly) treat as either downright dangerous or a laughingstock, or both. Whoever takes over won’t be looking for a full-on (b)romance.”

Richard Whitman, a professor of politics at the University of Kent, said the “chemistry between May and Trump was awkward.” But he said Johnson-Trump would be different, calling it a “clash for the title of the greatest showman.”

Meet the main contenders

Boris Johnson

Johnson, 54, is the bookmakers’ favorite to succeed May. He is a direct descendant of King George II — his full name is Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson — and he has passed through many hallowed corridors of the British establishment. There was Eton College and the University of Oxford, where he was in the same classes as former British Prime Minister David Cameron. In addition to foreign secretary, Johnson has been London’s mayor. He also was a journalist, editing The Spectator, a longstanding political magazine. Johnson is a leading supporter of Brexit. He has spoken of his admiration for Trump on several occasions, although when mayor he also said the U.S. president was “clearly out of his mind.” Johnson is well-known in Britain for his tussled blonde hair and frequent classical allusions in speeches. One in four Britons think he would make a good prime minister, according to a survey by YouGov, a research firm.

Michael Gove

Another prominent supporter of Britain leaving the EU, Gove, 51, is currently minister for the environment. He had a cabinet-level role in Cameron’s government and he is viewed as a seasoned operator with extremely good debating skills. (While at Oxford, Gove was president of the debating society.) Like Johnson, Gove is also a former journalist and he made headlines in Britain when he secured the first interview with Trump for a British publication after his election in 2016. Gove boasted in that interview for the Times of London that he spent an hour with the president-elect in his “glitzy, golden man cave” in Trump Tower, in New York City. Trump told Gove that Britain was “smart to leave the EU.” Gove predicted Trump would resign or lose the 2020 election. If he ends up as Trump’s new British counterpart some of his comments out of the interview may come back to haunt him: “He is someone who is clearly narcissistic or egotistical enough to want to be seen as a success,” Gove said of Trump.

Sajid Javid

Javid, 49, has held various cabinet-level positions in Conservative Party governments, most recently as home secretary, or interior minister. He is the son of a former bus driver from Pakistan and represents the relatively new face of British conservatism. Javid voted to stay in the EU in the referendum but has since campaigned aggressively for Britain to abide by the vote’s outcome, and leave. He is known for taking a hard line on immigration and has been a fiercely vocal opponent of letting the wives and children of former Islamic State group fighters return to Britain. In one example, that of Shamima Begun, who fled to Syria’s battlefields at 15, Javid is trying to revoke her citizenship in a case that mirrors that of New Jersey-born Hoda Muthana. The Trump administration is trying to block Muthana’s return in a Washington court.

Andrea Leadsom

Leadsom, 56, was the last candidate standing against May in the 2016 race to succeed Cameron. She resigned Wednesday as leader of the House of Commons – a job responsible for arranging the order of government business in Britain’s Parliament –in protest at May’s then-refusal to step aside over Brexit. Leadsom is an ardent backer of Brexit but she stumbled during the leadership contest with May three years ago after she implied in an interview with a British newspaper that she thought she would make a better prime minister than May because being a mother gave her an “advantage” over the childless May. “I have children who are going to have children who will directly be part of what happens next,” Leadsom said in the BBC interview.Leadsom also appeared to inflate her experience working in financial services.

Dominic Raab

Raab, 45, worked for an international law firm that litigated against war criminals before joining Britain’s foreign diplomatic corp as an advisor in 2000. He has a black belt in karate and boxes regularly. Raab resigned earas Brexit secretary in May’s government so that he could vote against her EU withdrawal deal. He only served five months in the role. In interviews with the British press, Raab has spoken of wanting to get a “fairer deal for working Britain.” He would do this, he said, by cutting taxes.

Who else could become Britain’s next prime minister?

• Penny Mordaunt, 46, Britain’s first female defense secretary
• Amber Rudd, 55, powerful former interior minister
• Jeremy Hunt, 52, replaced Boris Johnson as foreign secretary
• Kit Malthouse, 52, former deputy London mayor
• David Davis, former Brexit secretary
• James Cleverly, 49, junior Brexit minister
• Graham Brady, 51, chair of the 1992 Committee that helped oust May
• Liz Truss, 43, a treasury official
• Justine Greening, 50, former education minister
• Matt Hancock, 40, ex-economist at the Bank of England, Britain’s central bank
• Rory Stewart, 46, international development secretary
• Esther McVey, 51, former work and pensions minister
  

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  Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/05/24/trump-friend-boris-johnson-leading-race-replace-theresa-may/1202769001/

  [Disclaimer]

The post Trump ‘friend’ Boris Johnson, who was born in the US, is the favorite to replace British Prime Minister Theresa May first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The surprise resignation of Mr. Raab on Thursday morning followed a tense, five-hour meeting of the cabinet the previous day, during which ministers reluctantly agreed to sign off on Mrs. May’s draft plans for departure from the European Union, a process commonly known as Brexit.

Mr. Raab’s departure was not only unexpected but also deeply damaging to Mrs. May’s authority, increasing the risk that she might face a leadership challenge from rebel lawmakers inside her own Conservative Party.

Shortly after his announcement, Esther McVey, the work and pensions secretary, resigned, adding to the turmoil.

After sliding in the minutes before Mrs. May started her speech, the currency rose to $1.2786 as she talked.

The crisis is a grave one for Mrs. May, who knew even before the resignations that she would struggle to win Parliamentary approval for her draft agreement. She addressed the House of Commons on Thursday morning to sell her deal and for nearly three hours took questions on the deal, nearly all of them ranging from skeptical to outright hostile.

“What we agreed yesterday was not the final deal,” she said. “It is a draft treaty that means that we will leave the E.U. in a smooth and orderly way on the 29th of March, 2019, and which sets the framework for a future relationship that delivers in our national interest.”

An investment manager watching Mrs. May speak to the House of Commons. The pound dropped as much as 1.5 percent against the dollar on Thursday.  Credit Simon Dawson/Reuters

She added that the deal “delivers in ways that many said could simply not be done.” It would put in place a transitional relationship with the European Union through the end of 2020, while a permanent arrangement is negotiated, but the transition period could be extended.

Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party leader, called Mrs. May’s agreement “a leap in the dark, an ill-defined deal by a never-defined date.” The continued uncertainty about Britain’s relationship with Europe, lasting at least another two years and possibly much longer, will accelerate the exodus of businesses and investment that is already underway, he said.

“Parliament cannot, and I believe will not,” accept the arrangement, he added.

That view was echoed by Ian Blackford, a lawmaker from the Scottish National Party, who said the prime minister was “trying to sell us a deal that is already dead in the water.”

Reflecting the cool response to Mrs. May’s plan and the talk of a leadership challenge, Laura Kuenssberg, the political editor of the BBC, asked at the prime minister’s news conference, “Is it not the case now that you are in office, but you’re not really in power?” Mrs. May did not answer directly, sticking firmly to her talking points about the deal and declining to dwell on the politics around it.

The lack of support for the agreement from lawmakers in both major parties had kept the pound down. “What we need to see is ministers who have not resigned come out and back the deal,” said Jordan Rochester, a foreign exchange strategist at Nomura Securities. “It’s not the P.R. campaign we’ve expected.”

Still, the lack of clarity kept the pound from collapsing, Mr. Rochester said, though calls for a vote of no confidence in Mrs. May did not help. Despite a series of negative headlines through the day, he noted, the pound did not continue to fall.

“There is a buyer out there,” he said. “It’s guys thinking, ‘It’s bad now, but it increases the chance of remain.’ ”

European Union officials lay low on Thursday, declining to comment on the drama across the English Channel, or to speculate about what would happen if Mrs. May were ousted or if Parliament rejected the deal. But speaking on the condition of anonymity, they said the union had gone a long way to satisfy the prime minister’s demands that there be no hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, and that Britain continue to have frictionless trade with the bloc.

Negotiators “think it is the best we can do collectively with the constraints that we have on both sides,” one official said.

Mrs. May made much the same point: “Nobody has any alternative proposal that both delivers on the referendum and ensures there is no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.”

Dominic Raab’s resignation increases the risk that Mrs. May might face a leadership challenge.CreditAndy Rain/EPA, via Shutterstock

Although a hard-line supporter of Brexit, Mr. Raab had been a core member of the cabinet, and his presence had reassured other hard-line lawmakers. He served as Brexit secretary for barely four months, succeeding David Davis, who also resigned, because he felt that Mrs. May was not taking a hard enough line in negotiations.

In his letter of resignation, Mr. Raab said that he could not “reconcile the terms of the proposed deal with the promises we made.”

View image on Twitter

Dominic Raab@DominicRaab

Today, I have resigned as Brexit Secretary. I cannot in good conscience support the terms proposed for our deal with the EU. Here is my letter to the PM explaining my reasons, and my enduring respect for her.

Ms. McVey’s departure, though damaging, was less of a surprise.

Esther McVey@EstherMcVey1

Earlier this morning I informed the Prime Minister I was resigning from her Cabinet

Another cabinet minister, Penny Mordaunt, the international development secretary, was also reportedly reconsidering her position after a cabinet debate on Wednesday that Mrs. May described, diplomatically, as “impassioned.” As many as 10 cabinet ministers were reported to have voiced reservations.

Iain Duncan Smith, a leading Conservative supporter of Brexit and former party leader, told the BBC that the effect of Mr. Raab’s resignation would be “devastating,” because it suggested that the Brexit secretary’s concerns had been ignored, despite his pivotal position in government and in withdrawal negotiations.

Such is the unhappiness from around the party at Mrs. May’s draft deal that the calculation of those who want to oust her might change.

It would take written requests from 48 Conservative lawmakers to secure a vote of no confidence in Mrs. May. Though the hard-line pro-Brexit faction has that number, it has held back so far because it does not believe that it has enough support to topple her.

To oust her as prime minister would require a majority of Conservative lawmakers — at least 158 — voting to force her out.

On the floor of Parliament on Thursday, Mrs. May faced a torrent of criticism, much of it from members of her own party. One Conservative lawmaker, Julian Lewis, described her deal with Europe as “a ‘Hotel California’ Brexit deal which ensures that we can never truly leave the E.U.”

Mr. Rees-Mogg, the Conservative Brexit hard-liner, said that the prime minister’s promises and actions “no longer match,” and asked why he should not join those demanding a vote of no confidence. He later confirmed that he had done just that.

Britons voted to quit the European Union in a 2016 referendum, but since then the Conservatives have been split between those who want to keep some close economic ties to the bloc, to protect the economy, and others who want a cleaner break.

An abandoned customs post on the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. The border is probably the toughest challenge in Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union.CreditAndrew Testa for The New York Times

Worryingly for Mrs. May, many of her enemies, on both the right and the left, are converging around the view that the compromise she has carefully forged is the worst of both worlds, leaving Britain without a voice in the European Union but still subject to many of its trade rules. Several leading Brexit supporters have characterized the draft deal as worse than membership in the bloc they find so objectionable.

The focus of the discord has been around plans to ensure that, whatever happens in future trade talks, there should be no physical checks at the border between Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and Ireland, which is a member of the European Union.

Under the so-called backstop plan that is part of the draft deal, the whole of the United Kingdom would remain in a customs union with the European Union until future trade plans that negate the need for border checks are worked out.

But Northern Ireland would be subject to more of the European Union’s regulatory processes than the rest of the country, a fact that Mr. Raab said “presents a very real threat to the integrity of the United Kingdom.”

He also objected to the fact that Britain could not unilaterally leave the backstop, a move that would clear a path to exit a customs union and pursue trade deals with other countries.

One of Mr. Raab’s under secretaries for Brexit, Suella Braverman, also stepped down on Thursday. Their departure had been preceded on Thursday morning by the resignation of Shailesh Vara, a junior Northern Ireland minister.

Shailesh Vara MP@ShaileshVara

With much sadness and regret I have submitted my letter of resignation as a Northern Ireland Minister to the Prime Minister. A copy of my letter is attached.
It has been a joy and privilege to serve in the Northern Ireland Office and I will always cherish the fondest memories.

Speaking at a news conference in Brussels shortly before Mr. Raab’s announcement, Michel Barnier, the top European Union negotiator, and Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, said they would call a summit meeting for Nov. 25, where leaders of the bloc’s member states could endorse the deal.

Mr. Tusk said that the accord approved by the British cabinet meets two crucial objectives: It limits the damage Brexit would cause, and it protects the vital interests of the 27 remaining members states and the European Union as a whole.

“We have always said Brexit is a lose-lose situation and these negotiations were always about damage control,” he said.

Mr. Barnier said that the coming days, when the focus will be on finalizing a political declaration outlining the future relationship between Britain and the European Union, would be “intense,” adding that “we have no time to lose.” Brexit is scheduled to take effect on March 29.

However, European Union officials have made it clear that they were scheduling the summit meeting on the assumption that turbulence in Mrs. May’s party would not paralyze or overwhelm her government.

Follow Stephen Castle on Twitter: @_StephenCastle.

Reporting was contributed by Michael Wolgelenter, Amie Tsang and Richard Pérez-Peña from London, and Steven Erlanger from Brussels.

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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/15/world/europe/uk-brexit-theresa-may.html

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