{"id":47177,"date":"2021-12-19T01:24:20","date_gmt":"2021-12-19T01:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47177"},"modified":"2021-12-19T01:24:20","modified_gmt":"2021-12-19T01:24:20","slug":"uk-brexit-minister-david-frost-resigns-in-blow-to-pm-johnson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47177","title":{"rendered":"UK Brexit minister David Frost resigns in blow to PM Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

British Brexit Minister David Frost has resigned over disillusionment with the direction of Boris Johnson\u2019s government, dealing a severe blow to the embattled prime minister as the Omicron variant sweeps the country.<\/p>\n

The resignation of Frost, a core architect of Johnson\u2019s tumultuous Brexit strategy, raised questions about the future tone of the European Union divorce and the immediate course of talks on Northern Ireland. It also added to a sense of turmoil in Johnson\u2019s Conservative government.<\/p>\n

Frost said he was confident that Brexit was secure but said he had concerns about the government\u2019s direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know my concerns about the current direction of travel,\u201d Frost told Johnson in a letter released by Downing Street on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope we will move as fast as possible to where we need to get to: a lightly regulated, low tax, entrepreneurial economy, at the cutting edge of modern science and economic change.\u201d<\/p>\n

His resignation was first reported by The Mail on Sunday, which said it was triggered by Johnson\u2019s tougher COVID-19 restrictions but also by a broader discontent with tax rises and the cost of environmental policies.<\/p>\n

Frost said he had agreed with Johnson earlier this month to leave in January, but because his move had been leaked, it should happen with immediate effect.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also need to learn to live with COVID,\u201d Frost said. \u201cI hope we can get back on track soon and not be tempted by the kind of coercive measures we have seen elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson said he was sorry to receive Frost\u2019s resignation.<\/p>\n

\u2018Buffoonery\u2019<\/h2>\n

The departure of the United Kingdom government\u2019s most senior Brexit negotiator comes on top of warnings from some of Johnson\u2019s own Conservative Party legislators that he must improve his leadership or face a challenge.<\/p>\n

Johnson, who won a landslide election victory in December 2019, is facing the biggest crisis of his premiership after a litany of scandals and missteps, which his opponents say show he is unfit to be prime minister.<\/p>\n

Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the opposition Labour Party, said Johnson isn\u2019t up to the job as the Omicron variant drives a spike in coronavirus infections.<\/p>\n

\u201cA government in total chaos right when the country faces an uncertain few weeks,\u201d Rayner wrote on social media. \u201cWe deserve better than this buffoonery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson has faced a barrage of criticism since a video emerged showing his staff laughing and joking about a Downing Street party during a 2020 Christmas lockdown when such festivities were banned.<\/p>\n

Downing Street had denied a party took place. The UK\u2019s top civil servant, Simon Case, has stepped down from leading the investigation into alleged parties after it was disclosed that an event had been held in his own office.<\/p>\n

The loss of a parliamentary seat in a by-election defeat in a Conservative stronghold of North Shropshire this week showed public dismay over the litany of scandals and stepped up pressure on Johnson.<\/p>\n

Earlier, 99 Conservative legislators voted against so-called vaccine passports in the House of Commons, the most significant rebellion in Johnson\u2019s two and a half years as prime minister.<\/p>\n

Johnson, who won a landslide election victory in December 2019, is facing the biggest crisis of his premiership after a litany of scandals and missteps, which his opponents say show he is unfit to be prime minister [File: Matt Dunham\/AP]<\/figure>\n

Frost, a former diplomat who was repeatedly hailed by Johnson as \u201cthe greatest Frost since the Great Frost of 1709,\u201d was a committed Brexit supporter who negotiated Johnson\u2019s revised EU divorce deal and a trade agreement.<\/p>\n

He cast the UK\u2019s 2016 vote to leave the EU as part of a broader rebellion against the bloc\u2019s transnational collective governance that wanted to revive the nation-state.<\/p>\n

Having such a true \u201cBrexit believer\u201d at the heart of UK power gave reassurance to Brexit supporters in the Conservative Party that Johnson would remain tough on the EU.<\/p>\n

Frost, until his resignation, was leading an attempt by London to renegotiate parts of the divorce deal concerning Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

Beyond Brexit, though, the 56-year-old Frost was unhappy.<\/p>\n

In a speech last month, Frost expressed his clear discontent with the course of post-Brexit UK policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the European Union from Britain with Brexit, only to import that European model after all this time,\u201d Frost said in a November 22 speech at the Margaret Thatcher Conference on Trade.<\/p>\n

He disagreed with \u201cthose who think we can treat the private sector as just a convenient way of keeping the public sector running.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt isn\u2019t just a source of taxes,\u201d Frost said. \u201cWe can\u2019t carry on as we were before, and if after Brexit all we do is import the European social model we will not succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

British Brexit Minister David Frost has resigned over disillusionment with the direction of Boris Johnson\u2019s government, dealing a severe blow to the embattled prime minister as the Omicron variant sweeps the country. The resignation of Frost, a core architect of Johnson\u2019s tumultuous Brexit strategy, raised questions about the future tone of the European Union divorce…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47177\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}