Boris Johnson has slammed the brakes on the Brexit negotiations because of the coronavirus crisis – hours after his foreign secretary insisted they could go ahead as planned.
Talks due to take place by conference call on Wednesday have been scrapped and plans to publish the UK’s hopes for a future trade agreement shelved.
Downing Street insisted the legal position was still “the transition period ends on 31 December 2020”, but – for the first time – did not state it would definitely conclude on that date.
The second round of the negotiations was already in disarray after face-to-face talks were scrapped, with around 100 EU negotiators unable to travel from Brussels.
The two sides had been attempting to set up complex conference calls instead, but even that has now been abandoned – with no obvious restart date in sight.
The move dramatically cuts the odds on the UK having to seek an extension to the transition beyond 2020, to avoid the tumult of a hard Brexit – or a no-deal Brexit – being piled on the massive disruption from the pandemic.
Previously, No 10 has insisted that will not happen, but today’s statement stated simply: “The transition period ends on 31 December 2020. This is enshrined in UK law.”
Michael Gove, who is overseeing the talks, had pledged to publish a draft free trade agreement (FTA) before tomorrow, but this will now happen “in the near future”.
A government spokesman said: “In light of the latest guidance on coronavirus, we will not formally be convening negotiating work strands tomorrow in the way we did in the previous round.
“We expect to share a draft FTA alongside the draft legal texts of a number of the standalone agreements in the near future still, as planned.”
One report suggested the UK is already privately preparing the ground to agree an extension in the coming weeks, as both sides struggle to focus on their negotiating aims.
In London, civil servants who had been working on no-deal preparations are being redeployed into trying to cope with the escalating crisis.
The UK has threatened to walk away – and prepare fully for a no deal – without marked progress by June, but there is no guarantee any talks can take place before then.
The two sides are miles apart on the UK’s insistence on the right to break EU rules on state aid, fishing, financial services and workers’ and environmental rights.
The UK has the option of extending the transition by up to two years to protect the economy – but Mr Johnson passed a law to underline his determination not to do that.
Earlier, Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, was accused of “reckless insanity” after claiming coronavirus had strengthened the case for completing Brexit at the end of the year.
The crisis had made “the case for intensive diplomacy to get this deal done and move on and take the relationship to the next level, he told MPs.
And he suggested MPs calling for a longer transition had an “ideological desire” not to cut ties with the EU.
