SNP seize on claim Brexit terms will be clear by 2019

Theresa May has said the timetable for the governments Brexit plan was sensible and pragmatic. Picture: APTheresa May has said the timetable for the governments Brexit plan was sensible and pragmatic. Picture: AP
Theresa May has said the timetable for the governments Brexit plan was sensible and pragmatic. Picture: AP

The SNP has seized on Theresa May’s insistence that the UK can agree the shape of a new trade relationship with the European Union within two years as evidence that a second independence referendum can go ahead by 2019.

The Prime Minister responded to pressure over the timetable for the government’s Brexit plan by saying it was “sensible and pragmatic” for businesses and individuals to have a clear idea about the future trading relationship by the end of the two-year negotiation period.

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A SNP spokesman said Mrs May’s comments supported the timetable set out by Nicola Sturgeon, who has formally requested a second independence referendum by spring 2019, when the First Minister says “both the terms of Brexit and the implications and opportunities of independence” will be “clear”.

A row erupted following of the two leaders in Glasgow last week, when the Scottish Government claimed Mrs May had agreed that the terms of Brexit would be made clear within Ms Sturgeon’s timetable. Downing Street denied any such assurance had been given.

Scottish Secretary David Mundell later said there would be no talks on a second referendum “until the Brexit process is complete”.

Speaking during a visit to Jordan to promote post-Brexit trade, Mrs May said: “I’m clear that by the point at which we leave the EU, it’s right that everybody should know what the future arrangements, the future relationship, that future partnership between us and the European Union will be. That’s the sensible thing, it’s the pragmatic way to look at this, and I believe that’s what we will do.”

Asked if she believed this can be done within two years, she replied: “Yes.”

But she stopped short of claiming a trade deal could be signed within that time, promting Labour to accuse her of a “significant retreat”.

Mrs May insisted: “At the end of this negotiation, will we have looked at both withdrawal and the future relationship? That’s what’s important. That’s what I’m asking for and that’s what I believe increasingly we will see.”

Her comments came after Germany’s foreign minister cast doubt on the possibility of completing the “laborious endeavour” of securing a comprehensive trade deal in such a short period, and following a report by MPs that also questioned whether a deal could be secured in that time.

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European Council president Donald Tusk, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and French President Francois Hollande have all a trade deal can be signed only after the UK has left the EU.

An SNP spokesperson said: “This merely repeats Theresa May’s previous confirmation that the terms of the Brexit deal will be known within two years, which supports the timetable we have set out for people being given a choice on their future.”