Theresa May rows back from Brexit transition extension after Tory backlash
Theresa May has tried to downplay anger over a plan to extend the UK’s post-Brexit transition period, just hours after flagging the idea to EU leaders.
Speaking in Brussels, the PM claimed keeping the UK signed up to EU rules for a further year was not her idea – but could indeed be a solution to the Irish backstop issue.
Her comments came less than 24 hours after she had told her EU counterparts an extension to the transition period past December 2020 was an option to secure a post-Brexit trade deal.
The suggestion provoked anger from many Tory MPs, with veteran eurosceptic Bill Cash dubbing it “unthinkable”, while former Remain campaigner Nick Boles branded it "madness".
Extending the transition period would see the UK continuing to pay billions into the EU budget and following Brussels’s rules on trade, free movement and regulation.
However, the UK would have no voice in the European Parliament and no formal position in other EU institutions.
Speaking at the conclusion of the latest EU summit, May tried to dampen the row, but also admitted extending the transition period was under consideration.
She said: “I’ve always been very clear that we negotiated an implementation period with the EU and we negotiated that that implementation period would end at the end of December 2020.
“What has now emerged is the idea that an option to extend the implementation period could be a further solution to this issue of backstop in Northern Ireland.
“What we are not doing, we are not standing her proposing an extension to the implementation period.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel used a post-summit press conference to suggest an extra period of transition would not be needed once a “political solution” to the impasse was found.
In his own remarks to the press, European Council president Donald Tusk revealed EU leaders had not actually discussed a longer transition period after May brought up the idea.
“I am sure the leaders would be ready to consider it positively,” he added.
EU leaders decided on Wednesday not to give the go-ahead for a special Brexit summit to be held in November, as sufficient progress has not been made over the Irish backstop issue.
Despite the stalemate, Tusk tried to sound upbeat in his press conference – a contrast to his remarks at the close of a summit in Salzburg last month when said May’s plan for a post-Brexit trade deal with the EU would not work.
“We are in a much better mood than after Salzburg,” said Tusk, adding that his optimism was “maybe more emotional” than “rational”.