British Prime Minister Theresa May has withstood a tumultuous day in office, with the resignation of her Brexit secretary and other ministers. It follows widespread anger over the draft Brexit agreement with the European Union, which was the subject of a five-hour cabinet meeting on Wednesday. CGTN's Catherine Drew reports.

Theresa May spent the better part of three hours on her feet in the British parliament on Thursday trying to sell the provisional agreement hammered out with the European Union.

THERESA MAY BRITISH PRIME MINISTER "It protects jobs, security and the integrity of the United Kingdom and delivers in ways that many said could simply not be done."

And then answering mainly hostile questions about it. But before she had even stood up in Parliament, a wave of resignations hit her desk including from the man who led the Brexit negotiations since the summer, Dominic Raab. He says the deal has two major flaws.

DOMINIC RAAB FORMER BREXIT SECRETARY "The first is that the terms being offered by the EU threaten the integrity of the United Kingdom, and the second is that they would lead to an indefinite, if not permanent, situation where we are locked into a regime where we have no say over the rules and the laws being applied with no exit mechanism and I think that would be damaging for the economy and devastating for public trust in our democracy."

If Theresa May thought she'd had a bad morning, her afternoon did not get any better. Arch Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg who leads the Conservative party's pro-Brexit wing, announced he had submitted a letter of no confidence in May's leadership. Rees-Mogg says May is the wrong person to lead the Brexit talks, although denied wanting her job.

JACOB REES-MOGG EUROPEAN RESEARCH GROUP "This is not Brexit. This is a failure of government policy. It needs to be rejected. This is nothing to do with personal ambition."

But the prime minister remains on the offensive, hosting a news conference to say she would continue to work to push this agreement through, as a matter of national interest. All this as the EU prepares for an emergency summit in just over a week's time, for the remaining 27 members to agree to this draft proposal.

CATHERINE DREW LONDON "The long-fought Brexit battle over the last year and a half has always been bitter, but it's becoming particularly ferocious in what observers say is the Brexit endgame. Catherine Drew, CGTN, London."