When coronavirus first struck, the assumption was that it would lead to an extension to the Brexit transition. After all, negotiating rounds had to be cancelled as it wasn’t feasible to have large numbers of people travelling back and forth between London and Brussels and crowding into meeting rooms. But the negotiations are now taking place by video conference and the UK government is determined not to extend the transition period beyond the end of the year.
The UK’s view is that the differences between the two sides are so high level that they won’t just be solved by putting more time on the clock. As I say in the magazine this week, there is also a view that 2021 will be about a post corona reconstruction job and that there is no point in ‘asking the economy to transform twice’, once within EU rules and once without them.
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