Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey has quit the Cabinet over Prime minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal.
Ms McVey tweeted: “Earlier this morning I informed the Prime Minister I was resigning from her Cabinet.”

She included a link to her full resignation letter.



In it she wrote: “The deal you put before the Cabinet yesterday does not honour the result of the referendum. Indeed, it doesn’t meet the tests you set from the outset of your premiership.

“Repeatedly you have said that we must regain control of our money, our borders and our laws and develop our own independent trade policy.

“I have always supported you to deliver on those objectives.

“Even after Chequers when you knew I shared the concerns of a very significant number of colleagues, I believed that we could still work collectively to honour the will of the British people and secure the right outcome for the future of our country.

“This deal fails to do this.”

The scathing letter said the PM’s deal would “trap us in a customs union, despite you specifically promising the British people we would not be.”

Ms McVey added: “It will bind the hands of not only this, but future Governments in pursuing genuine free trade policies.

“We wouldn’t be taking back control, we would be handing control to the EU and even to a third country for arbitration.”

The former Minister said she “cannot defend this, and I cannot vote for this deal.

“I could not look my constituents in the eye were I to do that.”

Ms McVey recently backed the Pensions Dashboard.

At the Conservative Party Conference last month she told delegates: “We are delivering a private pensions revolution.

“More people than ever are saving into a workplace pension, up nearly 50% in the last six years and significantly driven by younger people.

“Through AE we have helped create almost 10 million new pension savers and we will be giving people the opportunity to access their pension information through an industry-led pension dashboard, building on the Government's Check Your State Pension online service.”

Ms McVey was in post for just over 10 months.

Northern Ireland Minister Shailesh Vara and Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab were among others to also quit today.