Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has admitted that Article 50 may have to be extended to avoid the UK crashing out of the European Union. He said a delay might be necessary if an agreement with EU was reached with only days to spare before the March deadline. When asked if a technical delay would be necessary, Hunt said, “That depends on how long this process takes. It is true that if we ended up approving a deal in the days before the 29 March, then we might need some extra time to pass critical legislation. But if are able to make progress sooner then that might not be necessary.”
He called the Brexit impasse as “a very challenging situation” and claimed changes to the withdrawal agreement could be made if the UK could allay Irish fears concerns about a possible hard border and those of the wider EU about the integrity of the single market. Hunt said, “Provided we can meet these very reasonable concerns from our friends in Ireland about not having a hard border and concerns in the EU about access to the single market- provided we can do that, which I think we can, then I think there is a way through.” He played down the insistence in Dublin and Brussels that negotiations on the withdrawal agreement would not be reopened.
Hunt said, “These are negotiations. People's first reaction when you make some new proposal to break a deadlock is to say 'no no no that's completely impossible', but in reality the EU said to us: tell us what parliament can unite behind- we've done that. Secondly, we will now put together some proposal that makes sure we don't breach these two very important principles for the EU.” Hunt also said Crawford Falconer, the chief trade negotiator at the Department for International Trade, would not be added to the team leading the negotiations with Brussels, despite assurances given to Brexiter MPs.
Hunt said, “To my knowledge there has not been a change in the team. I'm sure we are going to tap into his brilliance. He's an extraordinary man and a very, very experienced trade negotiator. I would be very surprised if he wasn't feeding into the process.” He also admitted that the business secretary, Greg Clark, was wary of technical alternatives to the Irish backstop put forward in the so-called Malthouse compromise. “We are not looking at one particular solution which is the only way forward. There was consensus in the Conservative parliament particular party around a technology solution put together by Kit Malthouse. That is one of the things we are looking it. He had some skepticism about it.”
