ANOTHER MEMBER OF Theresa May’s government has resigned, after universities and science minister Sam Gyimah stepped down last night over what he said was the Prime Minister’s “naive” Brexit plan.

He becomes the seventh member of May’s government to quit since she brought back the draft Withdrawal Agreement from Brussels last month.

Gyimah, who voted to remain in the EU, said the deal was “not in the British national interest” and argued that voting for it would set Britain “up for failure”.

“Britain will end up worse off, transformed from rule makers into rule takers,” he wrote on Facebook.

“It is a democratic deficit and a loss of sovereignty the public will rightly never accept,” he added.

He did not rule out the possibility of supporting a second referendum, saying “we shouldn’t dismiss out of hand the idea of asking the people again what future they want”.

Future contracts

Gyimah said Britain’s exclusion from the EU’s Galileo programme because of Brexit was a “clarion call”, saying it was “only a foretaste of what’s to come” in negotiating a future relationship with the bloc.

“I have seen first-hand the EU stack the deck against us time and time again,” he said.

Britain in June revealed that it had been formally excluded from future contracts for the programme, intended for commercial uses such as logistics as well as for armed forces and emergency services. 

Brussels has said it will deny London access to Galileo’s encrypted signals after Britain’s EU departure next year, despite its estimated £1.2 billion (€1.3 billion) investment.

May has said Britain would look to build its own system.

Gyimah, a former aide to prime minister David Cameron, praised May’s “grit and determination”, but his resignation highlights the daunting task of getting the deal through parliament.

Both Remainers and Brexiteers in her own party have vowed see it defeated in a crucial vote on 11 December.

- © AFP 2018