24 July 2018•Update: 25 July 2018
By Muhammad Mussa
LONDON
Premier Theresa May has downgraded the Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU) and has handed the responsibility of Brexit negotiations to her Cabinet Office.
“I am making this statement to bring to the attention of the house a machinery of government change,” May began in her statement to the House of Commons during the weekly Prime Minister’s Question Time.
“To that end I am making some changes to the division of functions between the Department for Exiting the European Union [DExEU] and the Cabinet Office,” May added.
“I will lead the negotiations with the European Union, with the secretary of state for exiting the European Union deputising on my behalf,” May said as she appointed herself as the lead negotiator and Dominic Raab, the newly appointed Brexit head, as her deputy.
The prime minister also said DExEU would recruit new staff and a number of Cabinet Office officials to support the downgrade.
May, however, said “DExEU will continue to lead on all of the government’s preparations for Brexit”, preparations that will include both a deal and a no-deal scenario.
The recent shuffle of the government departments comes after a series of high-level resignations from May’s government.
Former Brexit Secretary David Davis and former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson resigned earlier this month in protest over May’s Brexit plan, known as the Chequers Plan.
The EU chief negotiator for Brexit, Michel Barnier, also criticised May’s Chequers Plan, arguing that it failed to address many crucial points regarding the U.K.’s departure from the EU.
The U.K. is scheduled to officially leave the EU in March 2019.
