May: I did not beg EU for time af ter poll f lop British PM denies seeking two years for Brexit talks after election
BRITISH prime minister Theresa May has denied ‘begging’ for a post-Brexit transition period after losing several weeks’ negotiating time to her botched snap general election.
Mrs May did not formally propose an ‘implementation period’ until her speech in Florence in September.
But she claimed her reference to the need for a ‘smooth and orderly’ Brexit in an earlier speech at the UK Foreign Office in January made clear that this was what she had in mind.
Mrs May also still sees a postBrexit transition period lasting ‘around two years’, potentially putting her at odds with the European Commission, which agreed yesterday it should finish at the end of 2020.
The 21-month transition would align the UK’s final departure with the end of the EU’s sevenyear budget, to which Britain contributes. Pressed by Scottish National Party MP Angus MacNeil on whether she had been forced to ‘beg’ for a transition period, Mrs May told the Commons Liaison Committee: ‘I haven’t begged the European Union for two more years.
‘This is not two more years to negotiate with the EU. This is two years when practically both businesses and governments will be able to put in place the changes necessary to move from the current relationship to the future partnership we will have.’
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said talks on the transition will begin in earnest after a January 29 meeting at which the 27 remaining members are expected to approve negotiating guidelines agreed by the EC.
The guidelines make clear the EC expects the UK to continue to observe EU rules and regulations during the transition, while having no say over them. Mr Barnier appeared to indicate Spain would have a veto on any transitional arrangements covering Gibraltar, saying decisions on the issue would be ‘made for the 27, unanimously, by consensus’.
But Mrs May told the House of Commons: ‘We are not going to exclude Gibraltar from our negotiations from either the implementation period or the future agreement.’ Later at the committee, Mrs May also claimed Britain can complete negotiating a free trade deal before Brexit day, expected on March 29, 2019. But her comments came after Mr Barnier indicated he was only working towards reaching a political deal on the future UKEU relationship by October 2018, which would fall some way short of a full free-trade agreement.
Mrs May refused to confirm if MPs would get a ‘meaningful’ vote to approve an exit deal, despite rebel Tories joining the opposition to defeat the British government on the issue.
‘I haven’t begged EU for two years’