WE’LL DO DEALS ON BREXIT DAY ONE

May vows to work on trade AND prepare for new immigration rules during transition period

THERESA May will today insist that Britain is allowed to begin striking global trade deals and registering new EU arrivals on the first day after Brexit.

Eurosceptics have voiced concerns over the Prime Minister’s plan for a two-year transition period following our official exit on March 29, 2019.

Brussels has said during the period the UK will have to remain under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice and be forced to abide by freedom of movement rules. Critics say it is remaining in the EU in all but name.

But in a bid to allay fears among her backbenches, Mrs May will today tell MPs the country will start the process of going its own way during the transition.

In a further boost, it was reported last night that senior party figures could ask the PM to remain leader until the end of the transition period in 2021, shortly before the next election.

In a statement to the Commons following a European Council summit in Brussels last week, Mrs May will welcome the ‘shared desire of the EU and the UK to make rapid progress on an implementation period. ‘This will help give certainty to employers and families that we are going to deliver a smooth Brexit,’ Mrs May will add.

‘As I proposed in Florence [in September], during this strictly time-limited implementation period which we will now begin to negotiate, we would not be in the single market or the customs union, as we will have left the European Union. But we would propose that our access to one another’s markets would continue as now, while we prepare and implement the new processes and new systems that will underpin our future partnership.

‘During this period we intend to register new arrivals from the EU as preparation for our future immigration system.

‘And we will prepare for our future independent trade policy by negotiating – and where possible signing – trade deals with third countries, which could come into force after the conclusion of the imple- mentation period.’ EU sources have conceded that Britain would be allowed to start negotiating trade deals with other countries around the world during the transition, but have so far rejected the idea that these could be signed. A group of MEPs has also warned that plans to force EU nationals to add their names to a register in this period immediately after Brexit would be illegal and not acceptable to the European Parliament.

Mrs May yesterday declared she would ‘not be derailed’ from securing an ‘ambitious’ Brexit deal, following her defeat in the Commons last week when diehard Tory Remainers sided with the opposition. On Friday she insisted Britain was ‘well on the road’ to Brexit.

Remain supporters yesterday pledged to use the amendment to the EU withdrawal bill giving MPs power over a final Brexit deal to thwart the country’s departure. Lord Malloch-Brown, a former UN deputy secretary-general who has been appointed chairman of anti-Brexit group Best for Britain, told The Guardian: ‘The aim will be to shift public opinion by the time MPs come next autumn to have the meaningful vote that was agreed last week.

‘We cannot know precisely the Brexit deal that the meaningful vote will be on, but it will be the moment to stop the train wreck.’ He pledged to help various anti-Brexit groups coordinate their activities, saying: ‘There will not necessarily be a big bang launch, but the New Year is likely to see a much more co-ordinated campaign and a more coherent, consistent message. It will be both more pocketbook and more emotional, looking at issues like the risk to the NHS.

‘We need to sway public opinion nationally so that there is a majority to remain at the time of the vote in Parliament.

‘We also have to lobby in constituencies in a targeted way so we are reaching leave-voting MPs in constituencies where the majority voted remain, and we have to work in constituencies where remain MPs have been cowed by the support for leave in their seats.’ Best for Britain was set up in the wake of the Brexit vote using money and office space donated by Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson.

‘Certainty for families’