British PM Theresa May

British PM Theresa May hints delaying Brexit for months

Brexit would be delayed by about months to avoid hard border in Ireland, said British prime minister Theresa May without any extension information on its transition.

The scheduled end-date of final departure of Britain from European Union (EU) is December 2020 and she hopes a deal on the future trade and security relationship would be on time.

Her own speech on Wednesday at a Brussels summit hinted United Kingdom to remain in the single market and customs union until December 2021.

The steps would delay brexit by five years after the referendum vote in 2016 and by three years following official date of exit on March 29, 2019. It will result with a potential cost of about 10 billion to UK in contribution to EU budgets.

May argued in the summit that extension is possible only when it is assured there will be no hard border in Ireland provided a partnership deal is struck by the end of 2020.

From May’s speech at the European summit it is assumed option is being created to extend implementation period by months as she said “it would only be for a matter of months.”

May added, “But the point is that this is not expected to be used, because we are working to ensure that we have that future relationship in place by the end of December 2020.”

She further said the implementation period is being expected to wrap up by December 2020 and there would be no need of any similar proposal.