Row deepens for Sunak as minister won't say if she'll quit

Braverman 'on resignation watch' as Sunak bids to shore up supporters on Tory Right

- David Bond

A MINISTER today repeatedly refused to say if she would resign over Rishi Sunak’s Brexit deal for Northern Ireland as the Prime Minister faced a growing backlash from Eurosceptic Tory MPs.

Health Minister Maria Caulfield, who quit Theresa May’s government in July 2018 over the then Prime Minister’s so-called Chequers Brexit compromise, was asked if she would tend her resignation again, this time over Mr Sunak’s deal.

She replied: “I think there’s a lot of speculation. There isn’t a deal on the table at the moment so I haven’t seen a deal. But the Prime Minister is negotiating because the Northern Ireland protocol is not working for Northern Ireland right now.”

Although Ms Caulfield said the PM should be given “time and space to get these negotiations done”, she would not say if the current situation was the same as the Chequers revolt in 2018 when she joined then Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and former Brexit Secretary David Davis in quitting.

She told Times Radio: “I’m not quite sure what people are resigning over because a deal hasn’t been done. Let’s wait and see what the final deal looks like.”