Leadsom resigns over new Brexit approach

May has vowed to press on despite opposition from MPs and other ministers to her bid to get her Brexit deal through parliament by softening her stance on a second referendum and customs arrangements.

Leader of the House of Commons Leadsom said she could not announce the new Withdrawal Agreement Bill - which will implement Britain's EU departure - in parliament on Thursday as she did not believe in it.

"I no longer believe that our approach will deliver on the referendum result," Leadsom said in a resignation letter to May on Wednesday.

"It is therefore with great regret and with a heavy heart that I resign from the government."

May said she was "sorry" to receive Leadsom's resignation letter, writing in reply that she was "grateful for the support you have given over the last three years" in working to deliver Brexit.

But the Prime Minister said she disagreed with the assessment Leadsom gave about the government's current approach.

"I do not agree with you that the deal which we have negotiated with the European Union means that the United Kingdom will not become a sovereign country," May wrote.

May also said she agreed a second referendum would be divisive, but the UK government was not proposing to hold one.

Leadsom said she had always considered a second referendum dangerously divisive.

"No one has wanted you to succeed more than I have," Leadsom wrote to May. "But I do now urge you to make the right decisions in the interests of the country, this government and our party."

Labour chair Ian Lavery said Leadsom's resignation underlined that "the prime minister's authority is shot and her time is up".

"For the sake of the country, Theresa May needs to go, and we need an immediate general election," he said.

With PA

Australian Associated Press