Fierce backlash over Theresa May's move to extend Brexit transition phase grows as EU ready to accept offer

Theresa May arrives at the summit in Brussels
AP
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A fierce backlash over Theresa May’s handling of the Brexit negotiations is growing after she offered the idea of extending the transition phase.

The firestorm within her Tory party deepened further last night, with former leader Iain Duncan Smith saying an extension would mean falling into the next EU budget.

Former Brexit Secretary David Davis is also reportedly "on manoeuvres," calling ministers yesterday to try to urge a change of course in the negotiations.

Mr Duncan Smith said this would mean the UK would pay “tens of billions of pounds extra to the bloc, money he said has been promise for domestic programmes.

"I couldn't understand why we would offer to extend the transition period when we still haven't got anything back in return,” he told BBC2's Newsnight.

Theresa May is welcomed by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker ahead of the summit
REUTERS

"By extending the backstop we are likely to fall straight into the next budget of the EU which will mean tens of billions of pounds extra to be paid across to the EU.

"It would be very hard to tell the British people that we are extending another year or more into the implementation phase, and we're then going to pay tens of billions of pounds over when we actually say we need it for other domestic programmes.

"We are in a negotiation but at the moment it begins to look more like a capitulation than a negotiation. We have got to get some steel in our backbone and do something about actually negotiating, rather than saying 'what would you like?"'

It comes after EU chiefs said they are prepared to extend the post-Brexit transition period if the UK asks. And shortly before the Prime Minster gave a news conference in Brussels, European Commission president Jean-Claude Junker said an extension to the transition period "probably will happen".

Tory MP Nick Boles, who backed Remain in the EU referendum, told Channel 4 News that he would oppose moves by Mrs May to extend the deadline.

He said: "I think that so many of the things that she has told us about what she was proposing have turned out either not to be true, or she hasn't stuck to them, so when the Prime Minister first suggested this transition, and remember what this transition is, we stay in the EU in effect, bound by all of its rules, in all of its institutions, paying our normal contribution for two years.

"We have no vote. It's actually worse than being a member of the EU. She said, we are going to be in there until December 2020, not to negotiate a deal, to implement a free trade deal that would already have been negotiated.

"Now, what we hear, is that, actually, no, that's not enough time, and, no, we are not going to be implementing.

"We are going to be negotiating that long term relationship, and now we might need a third year.

"That third year would not cost an additional ten billion euros, it might cost 18 billion euros because we'd be in the new budget cycle of the EU where all of the contributions go up.

Theresa May speaks to the media as she arrives in Brussels for the summit
AP

"That is just an absolute mile from what we were originally told was necessary."

Meanwhile, in a fresh blow to Mrs May's authority, prominent Tory MP Johnny Mercer, who has been seen as a rising star of the party, branded the Government a "shit show".

In response, Mr Duncan Smith said: "It's not the language I would use - but I can understand his frustration.

"I think what we've seen over the last 24 hours has really made people quite concerned - not only in the party, but in the country."

Britain had originally sought a transition period ending in December 2020 after it formally exited the EU in March 2019.

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