UK govt publishes Brexit withdrawal agreement bill, includes provision PREVENTING ANY EXTENSION of transition period

Boris Johnson’s government has published an amended version of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) with a new clause preventing any extension of the transition period, which is due to conclude in December 2020.

The previous version of the bill had said the post-Brexit transition period could be prolonged by mutual agreement for up to two years.

Johnson told MPs earlier this week that the new provision would ensure that years of "deadlock, dither and delay" regarding Brexit would come to an end. The House of Commons is set to debate and vote on the amended bill on Friday afternoon.

Britain is scheduled to leave the European Union on January 31 after Johnson won a resounding general election victory last week on a promise that he would "get Brexit done."

Once that happens, the UK will enter talks with the EU to discuss their future trade relationship in a process which is expected to be lengthy and fraught with difficulty. Analysts have suggested it could take "years" to complete and would likely not be done and dusted by December 2020.

The EU's chief negotiator on Brexit, Michel Barnier, said earlier this week that Brussel would "do the maximum" it could to finalize the trade deal on time.

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