Damian Green at odds with Boris Johnson on Brexit transition
The Foreign Secretary says "not a second more" than two years, but the PM's effective deputy says it could be a few months longer.
Monday 2 October 2017 16:31, UK
Damian Green has seemingly put himself at odds with Boris Johnson on how long the Brexit transition should last, saying the Government needs to be flexible on Britain's EU departure.
The First Secretary of State, whose role means he is effectively the deputy prime minister, said the implementation phase mapped out in Theresa May's Florence speech could last a few months longer than the two years she has previously suggested.
In comments at a Conservative party conference fringe event, Mr Green also kept an open mind on paying for keeping access to the EU's single market after leaving the bloc.
His remarks come in the wake of an interview on the eve of the party conference in Manchester in which Mr Johnson said the implementation phase should last "not a second more" than two years and that there should be no ongoing sum forked out for single market access.
The intervention overshadowed the start of the annual gathering and sparked claims the Foreign Secretary should face the sack, given it was his second high profile intervention on the issue in as many weeks.
For his part, Mr Johnson said he was perplexed at suggestions his comments have overshadowed the PM's efforts to focus attention on the Government's domestic agenda.
He told the Daily Telegraph: "I think, actually, if you studied what I said, it was basically Government policy. I think it's extraordinary that so much fuss has been made about repeating Government policy, but there you go."
When asked at a conference fringe event about his Cabinet colleague's recent antics, Mr Green said: "Boris is doing what Boris has always done - adding to the gaiety of nations."
On the Brexit transition, Mr Green said: "The phrase the Prime Minister used was 'around two years' but that means a few months either way."
Mr Green said the Government was not nailing its mast to two years "to the minute", saying it could mean "instead of the end of March it's the end of June" 2021.
Setting out his stance on single market payments, Mr Green said his position was based on a wish not to constrain Brexit Secretary David Davis in the exit negotiations with Brussels.
"I'm not ruling anything in or out that will be in the detail of the negotiation because David Davis has got a difficult job and he is eminently suited to doing it.
"I'm not going to do anything that makes his job more difficult."
A common refrain from Mrs May on Brexit before she lost her Commons majority in June's General Election was that "no deal is better than a bad deal".
Mr Green played down such a prospect, saying departing with no agreement and resorting to World Trade Organisation rules "would be much less good than having a decent agreement" for both sides, but stressed it was likely a deal would be done.
"If you study European negotiations, they follow the same pattern where there's a lot of posturing, a lot of people saying a deal is completely impossible, and then at the last minute a deal is done," he said.
"It is overwhelmingly almost always the case in the EU that a deal is done."