DOMINIC Raab has been appointed as the new Brexit Secretary, Downing Street has confirmed.
He replaces David Davis, who dramatically resigned the position last night less than nine months before the UK is expected to leave the EU.
It comes after Prime Minister Theresa May secured cabinet agreement for a compromise Brexit plan on Friday.
Mr Raab – who was previously housing minister – was a prominent Leave campaigner during 2016’s referendum.
A relatively unknown public figure, the 44-year-old, who became an MP in 2010, is a surprise choice by Mrs May for one of the most important jobs in the UK Government.
The unexpected appointment could signal that the Prime Minister is hedging her bets against the possibility of someone else following Mr Davis out of the door and that she would then have to find a senior colleague to fill a key role such as that of the Foreign Secretaryship.
Labour’s Keir Starmer said: “Dominic Raab’s appointment to the Brexit Department changes nothing.
“The deep division at the heart of the Conservative Party has broken out in public and plunged this Government into crisis.
“It is now clearer than ever that Theresa May does not have the authority to negotiate for Britain or deliver a Brexit deal that protects jobs and the economy,” added the Shadow Brexit Secretary.
Explaining his resignation, Mr Davis warned the UK is giving "too much away, too easily" in the exit talks, but backed Mrs May to remain Prime Minister.
He said the Government had gone further than it should have in the negotiations, in a "dangerous strategy".
His decision to step down plunged Mrs May into a fresh leadership crisis and he was swiftly followed out of the Department for Exiting the EU by ally Steve Baker.
But Mr Davis said a leadership challenge would be the "wrong thing to do" and insisted he believed Mrs May was a "good prime minister".
Asked if she could survive, he replied: "Oh yes, of course."
Brexiteer Andrea Jenkyns said Mrs May's premiership was "over" but Jacob Rees-Mogg, who chairs the European Research Group of Eurosceptic Tory backbenchers, said he did not believe there would be an immediate challenge.
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