Boris Johnson resigns as Foreign Secretary

Boris Johnson has followed David Davis in resigning from the cabinet in protest over Theresa May’s approach to Brexit.

Johnson and Davis resigned barely 48 hours after the Cabinet appeared to have finally agreed its Brexit strategy, with Davis’s decision to quit quickly followed by the resignations of Brexit ministers Steve Baker and Suella Braverman.

Davis said in his resignation letter that the agreement struck by the Prime Minister's top team at Chequers last Friday "will make the supposed control by Parliament illusory rather than real".

But while Ruth Davidson backed May in accepting Johnson’s resignation, Aberdeen South MP Ross Thomson then became the first Scottish Conservative MP to publicly question Theresa May’s leadership, after expressing concern that her plans for leaving the EU would leave the UK as a “vassal state”.

Davis was today replaced by Dominic Raab as Brexit Secretary, but Thomson’s comments suggest more Eurosceptic MPs could follow suit in challenging the PM’s position.

Thomson, an ally of Environment Secretary Michael Gove, expressed deep concern over the government’s approach to Brexit after receiving a Number Ten briefing on the UK’s approach to leaving the EU.

He tweeted: “I’ve been deeply concerned by the #ChequersPlan but reserved judgement until I could see detail. I’ve just left the Downing Street briefing and I still have concerns. The #Brexit plan opening offer appears so diluted that we would be a vassal state. I now await the White Paper.”