Theresa May takes charge of EU talks and downgrades role of Brexit department

Theresa May has told MPs she is taking control of Brexit talks as she sliced off part of the Brexit department’s remit and passed it to Downing Street officials who report directly to her.

In a statement published on the last day before parliament’s summer break, the prime minister said responsibility for negotiating Britain’s exit from the EU would pass from the Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU) to Downing Street’s Europe Unit, giving her greater control of the process.

Ms May said her team would assume control of the “preparation and conduct of the negotiations”, while her new Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, will deputise for her during talks with Brussels.

The move will hand greater influence to the prime minister’s main Brexit adviser, Olly Robbins, who leads the Europe Unit and has assumed increasing responsibility in recent months.

The change prompted claims that Mr Raab had been “sidelined” just days after he took over the role from David Davis.

In a written statement to MPs, Ms May said: “It is essential that in navigating the UK’s exit from the European Union, the government is organised in the most effective way. To that end I am making some changes to the division of functions between the Department for Exiting the European Union and the Cabinet Office.

“DExEU will continue to lead on all of the government’s preparations for Brexit: domestic preparations in both a deal and a no deal scenario, all of the necessary legislation, and preparations for the negotiations to implement the detail of the future framework. To support this, DExEU will recruit some new staff, and a number of Cabinet Office officials coordinating work on preparedness will move to DExEU while maintaining close ties with both departments."

Ms May said that, from now on, Downing Street will assume responsibility “for the preparation and conduct of the negotiations”.

She said: “I will lead the negotiations with the European Union, with the secretary of state for exiting the European Union deputising on my behalf. Both of us will be supported by the Cabinet Office Europe Unit and with this in mind the Europe Unit will have overall responsibility for the preparation and conduct of the negotiations, drawing upon support from DExEU and other departments as required."

Some staff will move from the Brexit department to the Cabinet Office as part of the shakeup but the total number of Brexit department staff will not be cut, Ms May said.

The change follows months of frosty relations between No 10 and the Brexit department, with Mr Davis having grown increasingly frustrated at the direction Mr Robbins was taking. Tory Brexiteers are suspicious of Mr Robbins, who they see as being a supporter of a soft Brexit, and are likely to raise concerns about him assuming a greater role at the expense of Mr Raab, a vocal Eurosceptic.

The move is also likely to be seen as a sign of mounting concern among Ms May’s team at the prospect of failing to secure a deal by the October deadline.

Asked about the changes while giving evidence to the Commons Brexit committee, Mr Robbins said Mr Raab would continue to lead talks with Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, but that Ms May considered the negotiating strategy to be her “personal responsibility”.

Mr Raab, appearing before the same committee, admitted there had been some “shifting of Whitehall deckchairs” but said he would continue to deputise for Ms May. The changes were designed to ensure there is a clear chain of command, he said.

But Labour claimed Mr Raab had been “sidelined” after just days in the job.

Jenny Chapman, a shadow Brexit minister, said: “Dominic Raab has been sidelined by the prime minister before he has even had the chance to get his feet under the table.”