‘Hard Brexit’ trigger may be just months away

Theresa May tells Conservative party conference “there would be no unnecessary delays’’ in implementing Article 50.

Theresa May told the Conservative party conference “there would be no unnecessary delays’’ in implementing Article 50. Picture: Getty

British Prime Minister Theresa May has made it clear that sovereignty and immigration will supersede trading issues in European negotiations when Brexit is triggered before the end of March.

Government insiders believe the trigger for what is increasingly becoming a “hard Brexit’’ may be just months away and enacted in early January so that the two year divorce from the EU will be completed by early 2019. Mrs May had not provided a clear timetable but said the latest the Brexit would be triggered is the end of this March.

Mrs May told the Conservative party conference in Birmingham “there would be no unnecessary delays’’ in implementing Article 50, which triggers the mandatory two year divorce period.

I want to be absolutely clear. There will be no unnecessary delays in invoking Article 50. pic.twitter.com/xSmfzhiGTn

— Theresa May (@theresa_may) October 2, 2016

She insisted the UK would not adopt a quasi-EU relationship similar to Norway or Switzerland which have some pooled sovereignty measures for favourable trading status. The UK’s adoption of a “hard-Brexit’’ model has been criticised by some British business organisations concerned about being access to the European labour market. But at the Conservative party conference, Mrs May’s speech was received enthusiastically and with a standing ovation.

Mrs May said: “The process we are about to begin is not about negotiating all of our sovereignty away again. It is not going to be about any of those matters over which the country has just voted to regain control. It is not, therefore, a negotiation to establish a relationship anything like the one we have had for the last forty years or more. So it is not going to a ‘Norway model’. It’s not going to be a ‘Switzerland model’. It is going to be an agreement between an independent, sovereign United Kingdom and the European Union.’’

She said British companies should have the maximum freedom to trade and operate in the (European) single market but not at the expense of European court of justice interference or EU free movement of labour.

“We are not leaving the European Union only to give up control of immigration again. And we are not leaving only to return to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice,’’ she said.

The Minister in charge of the Brexit, David Davis echoed Mrs May and said the government was to repeal the EU Communities Act, which currently ensures European control of British laws, so that “the moment we leave, Britain must be back in control and that means the EU laws must not apply.’’ The UK will introduce a Great Repeal Bill to incorporate the current EU laws into British law to avoid a legal vacuum, and which will also allow the British lawmakers to then change or reject those laws.

Foreign secretary Boris Johnson said Britain was forward thinking and by taking back control of the borders and trade the country was becoming a new global champion. He ridiculed the EU for being so disunited it couldn’t come up with a uniform position to ban ivory and save the elephant. He also said the EU’s trading position had stalled in recent years.