UK: New cabinet ministers announced after resignations

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON

Steve Barclay has been appointed as the new Brexit Secretary, the U.K. government confirmed on Friday.

The appointment came a day after Dominic Raab’s resignation from this post over the draft withdrawal agreement reached between the U.K. and the EU.

Barclay, who is known with his views in favor of leaving the EU, has been a middle-rank health minister.

Former Home Secretary Amber Rudd has also been announced as a new Cabinet minister as she replaced Esther McVey, who also resigned on Thursday as Work and Pensions Secretary over the proposed Brexit deal.

Rudd, a staunch supporter of May, was previously in Prime Minister Theresa May’s Cabinet but she had to resign in April after failing to address her role in an immigration crisis known as the Windrush Scandal.

The two ministers had resigned, saying they could not support May’s Brexit deal, which the Cabinet approved with majority vote on Wednesday.

May on Thursday vowed to continue with her Brexit deal.

Thanking Dominic Raab and Esther McVey, she said she was sorry to see her colleagues leaving the government.

“Serving in high office is an honor and a privilege”, but also a heavy responsibility, she said.

Underlining that negotiating Brexit has been a matter of highest consequences, she said: “it touches every area of our national life,” and her approach has been to put “national interest first.”

May said the deal approved by the Cabinet on Wednesday “delivers what people have voted for.”