Claim: Government to Delay Brexit by Another Two Months with ‘Grace Period’

The British government is working in private to engineer another delay to Brexit, this time a two month period pushing back the legally enshrined March 29th departure date.

Christened with another obscuring name akin to the negotiation period, transition period, and even a mooted extension to the transition period — all simply means of delaying the actual date the United Kingdom becomes free of the European Union — the new so-called “grace period” is now being discussed in “secret” meetings in Westminster by senior members of the Government.

The British Government will call on the European Union to allow the country a two month “grace period” after the official Brexit date, according to claims about “secret” meetings reported by the Daily Telegraph, which are reportedly being held between senior ministers.

The claims state the nation would remain in the European Union on exactly the same terms as before departure during the period, before technically leaving the European Union on May 24th and graduating to the transition period for nearly two years, where it would still remain subject to a host of EU laws and regulations, and paying into the EU budget.

While a number of senior government members have already discussed delaying Brexit day in public and in leaked private conversations, the prime minister has not accepted this as a possibility, insisting the March 29th date will go ahead. This may be little comfort to Brexiteers, however, given the prime minister’s now established track record of insisting on a given plan up until the very moment of changing course.

The United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union over two and a half years ago. It is not clear that why after 31 months of negotiations, another two months would make a critical difference.

Breitbart London reported last week on the comments of Home Secretary Sajid Javid, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, and Justice Secretary David Gauke who all spoke on delaying Brexit day. Hunt was reported at the time as having said: “If we ended up approving a deal in the days before March 29, then we might need some extra time to pass critical legislation.

“But if we are able to make progress sooner, then that might not be necessary. We can’t know at this stage exactly which of those scenarios would happen.”

Even hardened Brexiteers have accepted there could be a Brexit extension, before even the Brexit transition period extension has started. Jacob Rees-Mogg said such an extension would not be impossible, if the negotiations were done but there had not been enough time to vote them through Parliament — making clear it should be a “short” period.

Qualifying his remarks, the North Somerset MP continued: “…to delay for the purpose of vacuous discussions would be solely to thwart Brexit. It must not be for that purpose and should be opposed if negotiations are incomplete.”

Oliver JJ Lane is the editor of Breitbart London — Follow him on Twitter and Facebook