LONDON: British government minister Andrea Leadsom said on Sunday it was “perfectly possible” to negotiate Britain’s exit from the EU in the next two years, as required by the rules of the trading bloc.
“When you have politicians right across the EU and in the UK who share the desire for a successful outcome with low tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, free trade between ourselves, cooperation on security and so on, it should be perfectly possible to meet the time frame.
“So I am extremely optimistic,” the Leader of the House of Commons said on the BBC’s Sunday Politics.
Meanwhile, sources said Brexit Minister David Davis will head to Brussels on Monday to open divorce talks with the EU with a message that there should be “no doubt — we are leaving the EU.”
Days after a suggestion from French President Emmanuel Macron that Britain could still choose to remain, Davis said there would be no backtracking from Prime Minister Theresa May’s plan to deliver on Brexit, for which Britons voted in a referendum almost a year ago.
“As I head to Brussels to open official talks to leave the EU, there should be no doubt — we are leaving the EU, and delivering on that historic referendum result,” Davis said in a statement.
“Leaving (the EU) gives us the opportunity to forge a bright new future for the UK — one where we are free to control our borders, pass our own laws and do what independent sovereign countries do.”
May, under pressure after losing her ruling Conservatives’ majority in a botched snap election, says she wants a clean break with the EU — a strategy some in her party have challenged as risking economic growth.
Davis, a prominent “Leave” campaigner in the referendum, said he was approaching the talks in a “constructive way,” knowing they will be “difficult at points.”
“We are not turning our backs on Europe,” he said in the statement. “It’s vital that the deal we strike allows both the UK and the EU to thrive, as part of the new deep and special partnership we want with our closest allies and friends.”
“When you have politicians right across the EU and in the UK who share the desire for a successful outcome with low tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, free trade between ourselves, cooperation on security and so on, it should be perfectly possible to meet the time frame.
“So I am extremely optimistic,” the Leader of the House of Commons said on the BBC’s Sunday Politics.
Meanwhile, sources said Brexit Minister David Davis will head to Brussels on Monday to open divorce talks with the EU with a message that there should be “no doubt — we are leaving the EU.”
Days after a suggestion from French President Emmanuel Macron that Britain could still choose to remain, Davis said there would be no backtracking from Prime Minister Theresa May’s plan to deliver on Brexit, for which Britons voted in a referendum almost a year ago.
“As I head to Brussels to open official talks to leave the EU, there should be no doubt — we are leaving the EU, and delivering on that historic referendum result,” Davis said in a statement.
“Leaving (the EU) gives us the opportunity to forge a bright new future for the UK — one where we are free to control our borders, pass our own laws and do what independent sovereign countries do.”
May, under pressure after losing her ruling Conservatives’ majority in a botched snap election, says she wants a clean break with the EU — a strategy some in her party have challenged as risking economic growth.
Davis, a prominent “Leave” campaigner in the referendum, said he was approaching the talks in a “constructive way,” knowing they will be “difficult at points.”
“We are not turning our backs on Europe,” he said in the statement. “It’s vital that the deal we strike allows both the UK and the EU to thrive, as part of the new deep and special partnership we want with our closest allies and friends.”
