The Secretary for Works and Pensions is the most high profile resignation over Theresa May’s Brexit Deal and the third minister to resign this morning.
There were reports of a tearful row between her and the Prime Minister as she attempted to sell her Brexit plan to her cabinet last night.
Following the blazing row in which she was shouted down, there were rumours that she would be among the first cabinet resignations.
“The deal you put before cabinet yesterday does not honour the result of the referendum,” McVey wrote in her resignation letter to Theresa May.
“Indeed, it doesn’t meet the tests you set out from the outset of your premiership.”
In the scathing letter, McVey added: “This is a matter of trust. It is about the future of our country and the integrity of our democracy.
“…British people have always been ahead of politicians on this issue, and it will be no good trying to pretend to them that this dea lhonours the result of the referendum when it is obvious to everyone it doesn’t.
“We have gone from no deal is better than a bad deal, to any deal is better than no deal.
“I cannot defend this, I cannot vote for this deal. Icould not look my constituents in the eye were I to do that. I therefore have no alternative but to resign from the Government.”
Many won’t be sorry to see the back of the Secretary for Works and Pensions, who under Iain Duncan Smith when he occupied the role helped make welfare reforms that have wreaked suffering on disabled people, the working poor and some of the most vulnerable in society.
McVey was twice caught out lying to MPs about a botched Universal Credit (UC) roll out that has seen record amounts of families referring themselves to food banks to survive.
After the National Audit Office denied that they told her to roll it out faster as she had claimed she was forced to apologise to parliament amid calls for her to resign for breaking the ministerial code.
Guardian columlist Polly Toynbee wrote at the time, “It’s no surprise that a ministerwho misleads parliament and thumbs her nose at the NAO is even more indifferent to the people who really matter – the millions suffering her department’s infliction of extreme hardship as they are transferred to UC.
McVey resigns a day before UN Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights Philip Alston is due to present his preliminary findings of the UN investigation into the Conservative government’s policies, the impact of austerity, UC and Brexit on people living in poverty in Britain.
McVey was elected MP for Tatton in 2017 having lost her Wirral West seat, which she held for five years, in 2015.
Earlier this morning, Brexit Minsiter Dominic Raab resigned from the Cabinet.
He tweeted: “Today, I have resigned as Brexit Secretary. I cannot in good conscience support the terms proposed for our deal with the EU.
His resignation came after Northern Ireland Minister Shailesh Vara’s.
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