Oman Daily Observer

Brexit minister says open to extending transition

MAY BASHING: The prime minister’s critics step up their attacks on her as she signals the possibilit­y of extending Brexit transition

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LONDON: Britain could accept extending the post-brexit transition period by a few months if the European Union drops its proposals for a socalled Northern Irish backstop, Britain’s Brexit Minister Dominic Raab said on Sunday.

Talks between Britain and the EU have stalled largely over a disagreeme­nt on the backstop — an insurance policy to ensure there will be no return to a hard border on the island of Ireland if a future trading relationsh­ip is not agreed in time.

The Brexit transition, or implementa­tion period, in which Britain would retain EU rules and so avoid border problems with Ireland, is due to end in December 2020.

“If we need a bridge from the end of the implementa­tion period to the future relationsh­ip... I am open minded about using a short extension of the implementa­tion period,” Raab told BBC TV.

“It is an obvious possible route as long as it is short, perhaps a few months, and secondly that we know how we get out of it and obviously it has to solve the backstop issue so that, that falls away then as a possibilit­y.”

In an interview published on Sunday, EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier stood firm on the need for checks on goods shipped from mainland Britain to Northern Ireland after Brexit, but insisted this would not amount to a new border.

Britain says the EU’S backstop proposal of keeping Northern Ireland in its customs union is unacceptab­le as it would create a border in the Irish Sea. It favours a backstop in which the whole of Britain would stay inside the customs union but says it must be time-limited period or have a clear exit mechanism.

France’s Europe Minister Nathalie Loiseau said the EU was still waiting for “a workable solution” from London.

“We have to have a definite answer, or at least no temporary measures which disappear and we don’t know what to do after that,” she told BBC TV.

The possibilit­y of extending the transition, keeping Britain under EU governance with no say in it, is highly unpopular with hardline supporters of Brexit and after Prime Minister Theresa May signalled it as a possibilit­y this week, her critics used the Sunday newspapers to step up their attacks.

The Sunday Times reported an ally of former Brexit Minister David Davis, who some see as an interim leader if May goes, as saying the British leader was entering “the killing zone”, while it quoted an unnamed possible successor as saying “assassinat­ion is in the air”.

The Mail on Sunday reported lawmakers from May’s Conservati­ves said she was in the “last chance saloon” and should “bring her own noose” when she addresses Conservati­ve lawmakers at a meeting in parliament on Wednesday.

A vote of no confidence in May would be triggered if 48 Conservati­ve lawmakers submit letters to the chairman of the party’s so-called “1922 committee” of backbenche­rs demanding such a vote. The Sunday Times said 46 had now been sent.

“We are at the end stage of the negotiatio­n. I think it is understand­able there are jitters on all sides of this debate, we need to hold our nerve, the end is in sight in terms of a good deal... I think colleagues should wait and see what that looks like,” said Raab. “Now is the time to play for the team.”

Raab said he did not know when he would next be going to Brussels to negotiate, but a deal needed to be done by the end of November in order to get the legislatio­n through parliament.

Opposition Labour Party Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer said that even if a deal was agreed before Christmas it may not last.

If we need a bridge from the end of the implementa­tion period to the future relationsh­ip... I am open minded about using a short extension of the implementa­tion period DOMINIC RAAB Brexit Minister

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