Davis: EU wanted to drag trade deal talks out for 10 years

THE European Union said that Britain should implement a decade-long “transition period” after Brexit while a future trade deal was hammered out, David Davis has revealed.

The Brexit Secretary said that Michel Barnier, the EU’S chief negotiator, suggested that Britain spends two years on separation talks and another 10 negotiating “future market arrangements”.

The suggestion, which Mr Davis rejected, meant it would have taken until 2029 for Britain to formally leave the influence of the EU and build a new trading relationship.

Aides of Mr Davis says that the EU now accepts that the transition period, during which Britain will retain access to the single market and a degree of free movement, will be much shorter.

However, the Government has still yet to agree how long the transition, intended to reduce the impact of Brexit on the economy, is likely to be.

Mr Davis made his comments at an Edinburgh Festival Fringe event hosted by Alex Salmond, the former SNP leader. He said: “What the transition period will look like is down to the negotiations. I kept saying ‘don’t call it the transition period’ because that means something different to absolutely everyone.

“Michel Barnier, when I first went to see him, his idea was that we would have two years negotiating the divorce settlement and then the next decade negotiating the future market arrangements. That wasn’t going to fly. But he called that the transition period.”