Brexit: Theresa May wants to thrash out a deal by end of 2018
THERESA May yesterday set her sights on signing a Brexit deal with the EU by the end of the year.
In her first major broadcast interview of 2018, Theresa May spoke of her optimism for the next round of Brexit negotiations later this month and hailed the “real spirit of cooperation” between the two sides.
She also warned Brussels negotiators of her determination to resist their attempt to penalise the City of London by excluding financial services from the eventual trade deal.
“It would be a free trade agreement which we want to cover both goods and services,” she said.
In the BBC’S Andrew Marr Show, she said: “I think what we saw at the end of last year, with the sufficient progress on the first stage of negotiations, was a real spirit of cooperation between the UK and Europe wanting to ensure that we get a deal that is in everybody’s best interests.”
I think what we saw at the end of last year, with the sufficient progress on the first stage of negotiations, was a real spirit of cooperation between the UK and Europe wanting to ensure that we get a deal that is in everybody’s best interests.
The talks were on schedule with the plan for Britain to quit on March 29, 2019, she added.
Mrs May expected the talks to focus on details of the planned post-Brexit transitional “implementation period” over the next few weeks.
She said: “We now have to look at the detail of that and the expectation, and everybody’s working to have that detail by the end of March in 2018.
“I’ve been very clear that, by the time we leave the European Union, we want to have agreed what the future relationship between us and the European Union is going to be.
Asked by Mr Marr if she believed a deal could be agreed this year, the Prime Minister said: “The intention is that.”
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier “himself has said he wants that agreed by October of this year so that can then go to the European Parliament which has to look at it”.
Mrs May insisted that MPs will get an opportunity to give their verdict on the expected deal.
“There will certainly be a meaningful vote,” she said.
Theresa May: We must focus on the implementation period
“There’s going to be lots of votes for MPs on different aspects of this and of course, crucially, the first thing that MPs will be looking at is the detail of the withdrawal agreement.
“We’ve said to MPs they will have a vote on that. They will also of course be then voting on the legislation necessary to bring both the withdrawal agreement and the implementation period into place.”
Mrs May insisted she could achieve a bespoke deal tailored to the UK’s needs rather than copying existing arrangements in place with other countries.
She said: “We start off from a different position from other countries. What we want is our own free trade agreement with the European Union.
“It would be a free trade agreement which we want to cover both goods and services.
“What I want to do is to ensure that as we look at the Brexit deal going forward, it’s important we recognise why people voted to leave the European Union here in the UK.
“Some of that was about free movement and an end to free movement. Some of it actually was about the issue of the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice and people wanting control, but at the same time I think people still want to have a good economic relationship with the European Union.
“So we want as frictionless and tariff-free a trading relationship with the European Union as possible and that’s what we mean when we talk about having a free-trade agreement which isn’t modelled on somebody else’s agreement, but is actually the right one for the UK.”