Britain is aiming to activate article 50 early next year, according to the UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
The article serves as the starting gun for the process of formal departure from the European Union.
Johnson has also said that when the article is initiated British ministers will then set out the principles for departure.
He suggested that the exit talks could take less than two years.
Confirmation of Johnson’s statements, however, was not forthcoming from Downing Street.
A Downing Street spokesman said: “The government’s position has not changed – we will not trigger article 50 before the end of 2016 and we are using this time to prepare for the negotiations.”
Johnson said the goverment was "talking to our European friends and partners now in the expectation that by the early part of next year you will see an article 50 letter.
“We will invoke that, and in that letter I’m sure we will be setting out some parameters for how we propose to take this forward – principles.”
Concerning the two-year deadline for finalising an exit from the EU, Johnson suggested it could take less time. “You invoke article 50 in the early part of next year, you have two years to pull it off. I don’t actually think we will necessarily need to spend a full two years. But let’s see how we go.”
Johnson’s only additional comments were about future trade with the EU.
“We are going to benefit from the fantastic opportunities for greater free trade with our friends in the EU,” he said.
“It’s overwhelmingly in their interests. Not only do we buy more German cars than anybody else, we drink more Italian wine than any other country in Europe – 300m litres of prosecco every year. They’re not going to put that at risk.”
“They would have us believe that there is some automatic trade-off between what they call access to the single market and free movement,” Johnson said. “Complete baloney. Absolute baloney.
“The two things have nothing to do with each other. We should go for a jumbo free trade deal and take back control of our immigration policy.”
Johnson was speaking from New York where he has been at the United Nations.
Earlier this month, a Downing Street spokesperson sought to clarify a Brexit position articulated by David Davis, the minister for Britain’s exit. Davis had said it would be unlikely that the UK will stay in the single market.
The spokeswoman said this was Davis’ own opinion, not government policy. She said: “He is setting out his opinion. A policy tends to be a direction of travel: saying something is probable or improbable is not policy.”
Comments
Johnson is only slightly less shifty than Gove.