What the papers say: Eurosceptics are wrong to ‘rage over the Brexit transition’

Michel Barnier’s Brexit transition deal offer – under which Britain will continue to pay into the EU’s budget and have no say on rules – has not gone down well with some Brexiteers. The Daily Telegraph says that this suggestion means that the date of when Brexit will happen has effectively been pushed back until December 31st 2020. The paper says that it was right for Theresa May to initially lay out a request for a two-year transition deal during her Florence speech last year. But since the PM made that speech, Britain has been too ‘meek’ in obeying the EU and allowing Brussels to ‘call all the shots’. This makes it no surprise that ‘Brexit-supporting Conservatives’ are getting jittery in the wake of Barnier’s proposal. After all, they realise that there is a majority in Parliament for a soft Brexit, and if ‘they do not like it, they will have to act soon’.