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Who is Andrea Leadsom, why did she resign from the Cabinet and what are her views on Brexit?

THE Leader of the House of Commons dramatically quit over Theresa May’s Brexit plan.

Andrea Leadsom, a staunch Brexiteer, said it was with a “heavy heart” she was standing down from the Cabinet.

Leadsom quit the day before the EU Parliament election
PA:Press Association

Who is Andrea Leadsom?

The Conservative MP for South Northhamptonshire, 56, was born Andrea Jacqueline Salmon in Aylesbury on May 13, 1963.

She studied Political Science at Warwick university before starting a career in finance as a debt trader for Barclays de Zoete Wedd.

Andrea Leadsom became a deputy director of Barclays  in 1993.

After working as a director of her brother-in-law’s hedge fund company De Putron Fund Management she became Head of Corporate Governance and a senior investment officer at Invesco Perpetual between 1999 and 2009.

She started her political career as a councillor on South Oxfordshire District Council where she served between 2003 and 2007.

Leadsom was then selected as the Tory candidate for the newly created seat of South Northamptonshire, winning in 2010 with a majority of over 20,000.

On entering the House she was elected as a member of the Treasury Select Committee and became the Economic Secretary to the Treasury in April 2014.

She was re-elected to the Northamptonshire seat in 2015 and she moved from the Treasury to the Environment and became the Minister for Energy and Climate Change.

In the Conservative leadership election in 2016 she stood against May after David Cameron had resigned in the wake of the EU referendum result.

She withdrew from the race though after she gave an interview in which she suggested being a mother made her a better candidate.

Leadsom took up the office of Secretary for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in July 2016 and became the Commons Leader in June 2017.

Why did she resign from the Cabinet?

Leadsom resigned from Theresa May’s Cabinet over the Prime Minister’s Brexit plan, the day before the country goes to vote in the European Parliament elections.

She said it was with a “heavy heart” that she could no longer support the government’s approach after May’s latest gambit to pass her withdrawal agreement deal backfired among both Tory and Labour MPs.

In her resignation letter she wrote:  “I cannot fulfil my duty as Leader of the House tomorrow, to announce a Bill with new elements that I fundamentally oppose.”

And she added, in a call for Mrs May to stand down: “I do now urge you to make the right decisions in the interests of the country, this Government and our party.”

She went on: “I do not believe that we will be a truly sovereign United Kingdom through the deal that is now proposed.

“I no longer believe that our approach will deliver on the referendum result.

Leadsom wrote to the PM this evening
PA:Press Association

“I have always maintained that a second referendum would be dangerously divisive, and I do not support the Government willingly facilitating such a concession.

“It would also risk undermining our Union which is something I passionately want to see strengthened.

“There has been such a breakdown of government processes that recent Brexit-related legislative proposals have not been properly scrutinised or approved by Cabinet members.

“The tolerance to those in Cabinet who have advocated policies contrary to the Government’s position has led to a complete breakdown of collective responsibility.

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

Leadsom had a successful career in finance before moving to politics
Reuters

What are her views on Brexit?

Initially Leadsom had been in favour of the EU, stating at the Hansard’s Society’s annual parliamentary affairs lecture: “I think it would be a disaster for our economy and it would lead to a decade of economic and political uncertainty at a time when the tectonic plates of global success are moving.”

But by 2016 she had changed her mind and campaigned heavily for Leave in the run up to the country’s referendum vote on staying in the union.

She appeared in a TV debate on the EU referendum, standing alongside Boris Johnson and Gisela Stuart.

She is a member of the so-called “pizza club,” a group of Eurosceptic cabinet ministers.

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