Raab says ready to extend transition to Brexit as May critics step up attacks

LONDON (Reuters) – Great Britain could agree to extend the post-Brexit transition period by a few months if the EU drops its proposals for so-called Northern Ireland support, the British minister said on Sunday. Brexit, Dominic Raab.

Discussions between Britain and the EU have largely stalled as a result of a disagreement on the point of support – an insurance policy guaranteeing it There will be no return to a hard border on the island of Ireland if a future business relationship is not agreed in time.

The transition to Brexit, or implementation period, during which Britain would maintain EU rules and thus avoid border problems with Ireland, is expected to end in December 2020.

"If we need a bridge between the end of the implementation period and the future relationships … I am open to the idea of ​​using a short extension of the period of implementation. implemented, "Raab told BBC TV.

"It's a possible path as long as it's short, maybe a few months, and secondly, we know how to get out of it and it's obvious that it has to solve the problem of the backs so that this eventuality disappears."

In an interview published Sunday, the EU's chief negotiator for Brexit, Michel Barnier, spoke firmly on the need to control goods shipped from Britain to Northern Ireland. after Brexit, but insisted that this would not be a new frontier.

Britain believes that the EU's proposal to keep Northern Ireland in its customs union is unacceptable, as it would create a border in the Irish Sea. He favors a backstop in which the whole of Britain would remain within the customs union, but indicates that this period needs to be time-limited or have an exit mechanism clear.

French Minister for Europe Nathalie Loiseau said that the EU is still waiting for a "viable solution" from London.

"We have to have a definitive answer, or at least no temporary measure that disappears and we do not know what to do after that," she told BBC TV.

"LAST CHANCE SHOW"

The possibility of extending the transition, to keep Britain under EU governance without being able to intervene, is extremely unpopular with Brexit extremist supporters and after Prime Minister Theresa May l '. announced this week, its critics have used Sunday newspapers for attacks.

The Sunday Times reported the ally of a former Brexit minister, David Davis, whom some consider to be an interim leader if May goes away, claiming that the British leader was entering "the "murders", while he was quoting a potential successor unnamed as saying "an assassination is going on" the air ".

According to the daily The Mail on Sunday, May Conservative MPs said she was in the "last chance room" and that she should "take revenge" when she will address Conservative MPs at a meeting in Parliament on Wednesday.

A vote of no confidence in May would be triggered if 48 Conservative MPs submitted letters to the president of the so-called "1922 committee" of the party, which called for such a vote. The Sunday Times said 46 have now been sent.

"We are at the end of the negotiation. I think that it is understandable that there is concern in all parts of the debate, we must keep our cool, the end is in the prospect of a good agreement … I think colleagues should wait to see what it looks like, "said Raab." It's now time to play for the team. "

Raab said that he did not know when he would be going to Brussels soon to negotiate, but that an agreement was to be reached by the end of November in order to get the legislation passed by parliament.

Keir Starmer, spokesman for the Labor-Brexit opposition, said that even if an agreement was reached before Christmas, it might not last.

"This idea that there will be a settlement, the problem will be solved," he said. "What we are going to see is that even if there is an agreement, the (conservative) Conservative Party will try to destroy it next year … it will not stop to fight about it. "