Jeremy Hunt has urged Tory MPs to get behind Theresa May – amid a backlash against suggestions the Brexit transition period could be extended.
The foreign secretary said the “great strength” of other EU nations was that they had stayed united in the talks – and he urged Tories to do the same.
The PM had to “maximise her negotiating leverage in Brussels,” he added.
Scottish Secretary David Mundell has raised concerns about a longer transition period with No 10.
He is said to be concerned it could mean the UK staying in the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy beyond 2020.
Source close to Mr Mundell said the idea of an extension was “vague” and “unexplored”.
Former Conservative leader and prominent Brexiteer Iain Duncan Smith said it would see the UK paying the EU “tens of billions” more.
He told BBC’s Newsnight he could not understand an extension when the UK “still hasn’t got anything back in return”, and said the negotiations “look more like a capitulation”.
But Mr Hunt said it was precisely because Mrs May had not “capitulated” to EU demands that no agreement had been reached at the European Council summit this week.
And he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The great strength of the EU in these negotiations is that the 27 EU nations have remained united. And we now need to do the same behind Theresa May to maximise her negotiating leverage in Brussels.”
The UK is due to leave the EU on 29 March 2019, and the transition period, which Mrs May prefers to call the implementation period, is designed to smooth the path to a future permanent relationship between the UK and EU.
During this period, which is due to finish on 31 December 2020, the UK’s relationship with the EU will stay largely the same. But with the two sides failing to reach agreement yet, Mrs May said this arrangement could be extended “for a few months”, if needed.
The UK has signed up to the principle of agreeing an Irish border “backstop” – an insurance policy designed to prevent the need for customs checks – in case there is a gap between the transition period ending and the future permanent relationship coming into force.
The problem is that the two sides have yet to agree what form the backstop will take, and how long it could last.
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Source: BBC
