We must leave the EU completely in March 2019 - No transition period, No delay

Theresa May is betraying the British people who voted to leave the EU by making the UK stay in until 2021 and paying billions of pounds to the EU while we stay. No immigration control, no border control, no sovereignty - an absolute betrayal of the 17 million voters who chose to leave.

The Government’s position has been very clear - the country voted to leave the EU, and there must be no attempts to remain inside the EU, no attempts to rejoin it through the back door, and no second referendum.

We are delivering on the decision of the British people; this does not change because of the implementation period.

A strictly time-limited implementation period will form a sound basis for the UK’s future prosperity, delivering certainty to individuals and businesses as we move towards our future relationship. It will enable us to exit the EU in a smooth and orderly way, with minimum disruption for businesses and citizens.

To provide this certainty, the implementation period will be based on the existing structure of EU rules and regulations. But it is important that we make sure UK interests are represented during the period. As such, we want to agree with the EU a way of discussing any new laws that are brought in, if we think they would be harmful to our interests. This would help ensure the implementation period operates smoothly, allowing us to resolve any issues promptly.

We have been clear that this period should be guided by how long it will take to prepare and implement the new processes required for when we leave the EU. At the moment, this points to a period of around two years.

The implementation period will not delay our leaving the EU - we will leave on 29th March 2019. This is absolutely necessary as the EU can only legally conclude our future partnership once we are no longer a Member State.

In addition, it is only once we have left the EU that we can take advantage of our status as an independent trading nation. During the implementation period, we will be able negotiate and sign new trade deals for the first time in more than 40 years. These deals will not be brought into effect until after the implementation period has concluded. The petition references ‘paying billions of pounds to the EU whilst we stay.’ The United Kingdom will cease to be a member of the European Union on 29th March 2019. An implementation period does not change this. We have agreed a fair financial settlement with the EU. We will honour our share of the commitments made during our membership but will see the end of vast sums of money going to the EU every year. Soon we will see significant savings from our payments to the EU compared to what we would have given had we stayed in.

Department for Exiting the European Union