BORIS Johnson's plan to ditch parts of last year's Brexit deal has led to the resignation of the head of the UK’s government legal department.

According to the Financial Times, Jonathan Jones, has quit his job due to a dispute with Downing Street over its plans to challenge parts of the Brexit withdrawal agreement.

The paper says Jones was “very unhappy” about the decision to overwrite parts of the Northern Ireland protocol, part of the 2019 withdrawal agreement, with new powers in the UK internal market bill.

Number 10 yesterday insisted the new powers were “limited” and were needed to bring clarity to the protocol, but the plans have sparked anger in Brussels and among opposition politicians.

Jones, who served as the Treasury solicitor and permanent secretary of the Government Legal Department, is the sixth senior civil servant to  quit this year. Cabinet secretary Mark Sedwill, Simon McDonald from the Foreign Office, Philip Rutnam from the Home Office, Richard Heaton from the Ministry of Justice and Jonathan Slater from the Department for Education, have all stood down.

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