May pledges to push on with quick Brexit

Out of the EU by 2019, says PM as she tackles No10 squabbles

DOWNING Street last night ordered ministers to get on with implementing Brexit, insisting it was ‘full steam ahead’ for getting the UK out of the EU by early 2019.

Prime Minister Theresa May also slapped down Liam Fox – one of three Cabinet members in charge of the UK’s exit from the bloc – for ‘playing games’ rather than focusing on the job.

The comments came after City sources claimed ministers had told them that Britain could remain in the EU until late 2019 – almost a year longer than expected.

Insiders said that two new departments overseeing negotiations would not be ready in time, and that the process of setting them up was ‘chaotic’. Next year’s French and German elections were also given as a reason for delay.

Not implementing Brexit swiftly would cause major tensions between No 10 and Tory backbench Eurosceptics. Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage has also warned that failure to deliver on June’s EU referendum could lead to mass demonstrations on the streets.

But Downing Street dismissed the reports. The Government is set to trigger Article 50 – which starts the formal process for quitting the Brussels club – at the beginning of 2017. This would mean leaving the EU in early 2019 after two years of negotiations.

A Downing Street source said: ‘Everyone has a view on Article 50 and timetables. The Prime Minister has set up departments to implement Brexit and we are looking at early next year. That is what the Prime Minister has told leaders of other EU countries. There is no indication that it is going to go further than that.

‘We know that Brexit means Brexit and that we have to get on with it. It is full steam ahead.’

Mrs May also interrupted her summer holiday in Switzerland to deliver a sharp rebuke to Dr Fox, the International Trade Secretary, after he launched a power grab against Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

In a leaked letter, sent to Mr Johnson and copied to Mrs May, Dr Fox effectively demanded that the Foreign Office be broken up and some of its responsibilities passed to his new department.

Dr Fox claimed that British trade with other countries would not ‘flourish’ if responsibility for future policy remained with the Foreign Office. He said that Mr Johnson should instead focus on ‘diplomacy and security’.

His demands have been rejected by Mr Johnson and No 10, which has told him to stop ‘playing games’ when there is so much work to be done on Brexit.

A Downing Street source said the Prime Minister was ‘distinctly unimpressed with letters like that’, adding: ‘There is so much to do that there is no time for game-playing.’

Yesterday, it was also reported that Mrs May is facing an ‘autumn ambush’ from Eurosceptic Tories, who fear that the UK is heading for ‘Brexit Lite’. They plan to launch at least two cross-party groups to pressure the Prime Minister into announcing a strict timetable for leaving.

Ministers were said to be trying to head off the protests by considering an early draft Brexit Bill, which would formally repeal the country’s EU membership. It would only be implemented once final terms had been agreed.

Meanwhile, at the weekend, Chancellor Philip Hammond announced that billions of pounds of EU funding for farmers, scientists and other projects will be replaced by the Treasury after Brexit.

In a move which could cost up to £6billion a year, the Treasury will guarantee to back EU-funded schemes signed before this year’s Autumn Statement.