In protest of the proposed Brexit deal of UK Prime Minister Theresa May with the European Union, British science and universities minister, Sam Gyimah resigned on Friday, the sixth minister from the government to have done so, Reuters reported.
Gyimah was a junior-ranking minister who had campaigned in the 2016 vote to keep Britain in the EU. She said Brexit meant Britain would surrender its “voice and its veto” adding that May should not rule out the prospect of a second referendum.
Her resignation comes at a time when May is currently in pursuit of persuading her lawmakers to approve the agreement she made with Brussels on Sunday. May has been facing criticism also from the Northern Irish party supporting her government.
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“It has become increasingly clear to me that the proposed deal is not in the British national interest, and that to vote for this deal is to set ourselves up for failure,” Gyimah wrote in a resignation statement published by the Daily Telegraph newspaper. “We will be losing, not taking control of our national destiny.”
Gyimah lauded the “grit and determination” of May, currently in Argentina to attend the G20 summit.
On Friday, May had stated that Britain will not use the EU’s Galileo space project for defence or critical national infrastructure.
“Galileo is only a foretaste of what’s to come under the government’s Brexit deal,” Gyimah said in his statement.
