The UK has formally ruled out any extension to Brexit trade talks just as Nicola Sturgeon made a plea for the transition period to be extended.
The First Minister, along with Welsh leader Mark Drakeford, told Prime Minister Boris Johnson that his timetable for a 31 December exit would be “extraordinarily reckless”.
But Michael Gove, the UK’s Brexit Minister, refused to bend, claiming it would be reckless not to take advantage of the opportunity despite being caught up in a global pandemic and economic crisis.
He said: “That’s it. We are leaving the transition period on December 31st. We don’t believe extending is the right thing to do.
Gove formally rejected an extension in talks with EU counterparts on Friday morning.
He added: "That provides clarity and certainty to business and our announcement today allows business to plan in an appropriate and flexible way for all the our departure from the EU as we take back control."
The First Ministers of Scotland and Wales believe more time is required to complete negotiations and support businesses through recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
They said: “At the time the Withdrawal Agreement was signed, no one could have imagined the enormous economic dislocation which the Covid-19 pandemic has caused - in Wales, Scotland, the whole of the UK, in the EU and across the world.
“While we hope that the second half of this year will see the beginnings of a recovery, we believe that exiting the transition period at the end of the year would be extraordinarily reckless.”
Sturgeon said leaving the transition period was “an avoidable shock" that would pile a further economic and social shock on top of the Covid-19 crisis.
Despite Gove's "certainty", he also performed a stunning U-turn on customs rules. The UK Government will apply much less rigorous EU border checks on imports than it initially had planned, after the Brexit transition period finishes.
The UK had committed to introduce import controls on EU goods in January. But ministers agreed to phase in controls until July 2021 to give firms “time to adjust”, with customs forms and tariff fees able to be deferred.
European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic told a briefing in Brussels the EU “remains open" to an extension, but said Gove had been “very clear, unequivocal” that the UK will not seek one “so we take this decision as a definitive one”.
A virtual summit between the Prime Minister and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen to try to break the deadlock in trade negotiations has been scheduled for Monday.
