Theresa May is trying to hide the fact that Britain will stay in the single market for years after Brexit

Theresa May is refusing to admit that Britain will stay in the single market and customs union during transition, Labour MP Chuka Umunna tells BI.
The PM has insisted that Britain will leave both organisations on exit day in March 2019.
Yet new guidelines agreed by the other 27 EU countries suggest Britain will remain as de facto members for years after Brexit.

LONDON — Theresa May is not being honest with the British public about the reality of the Brexit transition period.

That's the view of Labour MP Chuka Umunna, who in an interview with BI this week, accused the prime minister of misleading the public about the fact that, for at least two years after Brexit, Britain will effectively stay part of the EU single market and customs union.

"It was clear that certainly as far as transition is concerned, there was nothing else the EU could offer us other than transition on single market and customs union terms," the former shadow cabinet minister told BI.

"There was never going to be a bespoke arrangement offered to us, not least because there just isn’t time to put in place an alternative to a single market, customs union transition."

For Umunna, May's attempts to obscure the reality that Britain is heading for a Brexit transition inside the customs union and single market is so strong that she is not even being willing to use the terms.

"The prime minister has used different words like 'implementation period' and said we'll observe the same rules and regulations apply, without actually mentioning the phrases single market and customs union," Umunna adds.

"But that's exactly where [we] have landed."

Ummuna's view was this week given weight by the negotiating guidelines published by the EU Council following their decision on Friday to allow transition negotiations to begin.

It's clear from these guidelines which you can read here, that the EU understands the UK will "continue to participate in the Customs Union and the Single Market (with all four freedoms) during the transition."

It adds that Britain will accept the entire legal "acquis" of the EU, including "all existing Union regulatory, budgetary, supervisory, judiciary and enforcement instruments and structures," as well as "the competence of the Court of Justice of the European Union."

Yet these are not things that the prime minister has so far been open about.

For instance, in October the prime minister told parliament:"I have been clear that when we leave the European Union we will no longer be members of its single market or its customs union."

She added: "The British people voted for control of their borders, their laws and their money. And that is what this government is going to deliver."

And on Friday Dan Dalton, the Conservative Party's chief whip in the EU Parliament, described the prospect of staying in the customs union during transition as "totally unacceptable" in an interview with Sky News.

This is a view shared by large parts of the Conservative party, which is increasingly worried that Britain will be left essentially as almost full members of the EU for years after we leave.

Importantly, continued de facto customs union membership would prevent Britain from immediately striking new free trade deals around the world as her International Trade Secretary Liam Fox has previously suggested we will.

As BI previously reported, Fox promised cheering delegates at the Conservative party conference this autumn that the UK would sign 40 free trade deals the 'second after' Brexit. None of that would be possible under the plans spelled out this week.

More importantly, continued de facto single market membership would also leave the door open for a future government, potentially under Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, to keep Britain inside the tent indefinitely — something leading Brexiteers such as former UKIP leader Nigel Farage increasingly fear.

This growing conflict between political demands for Britain to reach out into the world away from the EU and the economic necessity for a smooth transition period is incredibly hard for May to settle.

This is almost certainly why the prime minister has so far been so reluctant to spell out the reality of the Brexit transition period, or even to use the phrase itself.

Yet whatever words May chooses to describe the two year period after Brexit, it's become increasingly clear that any transition period will look very much like continued membership.

And as transition talks begin in the new year, this is a reality that May could soon be forced to face up to.

Theresa May is trying to hide the fact that Britain will stay in the single market for years after Brexit

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