The appointment of Dominic Raab as Brexit Secretary to replace David Davis is very smart politics by the prime minister. He is regarded by the True Brexiters as one of them. In fact, David Davis sees Raab as his protege.
For what its worth, his promotion shows the influence in Downing Street of the director of communications, Robbie Gibb – late of the BBC – in that Gibb has been a fan of Raab’s for some time.
If there is a mystery, it is why Raab took the job. The point is that it is pretty unlikely that he fundamentally disagrees with Davis that May’s plan to take EU rules for how we produce goods and food represents a breach of what the British people thought they were voting for in the referendum. And Raab too is bound to have reservations about collecting tariffs for the EU, since that is likely to see the EU insisting the European Court of Justice has an oversight role there.
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