Boris seeks to rule out Brexit delay
LONDON: The Brexit debate resumed after Thursday’s election with the Boris Johnson government on Tuesday announcing that the Withdrawal Agreement Bill to be placed before parliament on Friday will block any delay beyond December 2020.
The UK is due to leave the EU on January 31, but will move into a “transition” phase, when nothing will change in practice, with the UK remaining in the EU single market and the customs union until December 31, 2020.
London and Brussels are expected to finalise a trade agreement during the transition period for arrangements in place from
January 1, 2021. Critics doubt if the deal can be reached in such a short time.
The transition period can be extended by mutual agreement for up to two years. But PM Johnson is ruling out the extension, which also makes it possible for the UK to leave without a deal.
Shadow Brexit secretary Keir
Starmer said the move was “reckless and irresponsible”, alleging that Johnson is “prepared to put people’s jobs at risk”.
As new MPS took oath in the House of Commons, PM Johnson held his new government’s first cabinet meeting, using a catchphrase used by former US president Ronald Reagan in 1984: “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”
An upbeat Johnson told the cabinet, “It was a quite extraordinary... seismic election, but we need to repay their trust and work 24 hours a day, work flat out, to deliver. Of course, the first 100 days were very busy - 140 days, or whatever it was; you may remember it was a very frenetic time. But you ain’t seen nothing yet, folks.”