Transitional deal due within three years of leaving EU – Chancellor

A transitional deal is expected to be completed within three years of the UK leaving the European Union, according to the Chancellor.

Philip Hammond said trade deals with third countries may not come into force during the period, but claimed there was a “broad consensus” treatybased arrangements with the EU would be in force by the next scheduled general election in June 2022.

Mr Hammond said “many things will look similar” on the first day after leaving the bloc in March 2019, and hoped goods would flow across the border between the EU and Britain in “much the same way as they do now” during the transitional period.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “There will be a process between the date we leave the European Union and the date on which the new treaty-based arrangements between the UK and the European Union which we hope and expect to negotiate come into force.”

Mr Hammond did not say how long it would take to put the “necessary arrangements in place”, but said: “People have talked about a year, two years, maybe three years.

“I think there’s a broad consensus that this process has to be completed by the scheduled time of the next general election, which is in June 2022.”

He said there was a “broad acceptance” among the Cabinet for a transitional period after March 2019, and told the programme he could “envisage” a situation immediately following Britain’s departure “with many arrangements remaining very similar to how they were the day before we exited the European Union”.