London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Saturday, Oct 25, 2025

Boris Johnson will amend Brexit bill to outlaw extension

Boris Johnson will amend Brexit bill to outlaw extension

Legal block on finalising deal after 2020 removes safety net below negotiations with EU
Boris Johnson will attempt to mark his election promise to “get Brexit done” by writing into law that the UK will leave the EU in 2020 and will not extend the transition period.

As MPs begin to be sworn in at Westminster on Tuesday, the prime minister’s team is working on amending the withdrawal agreement bill so that the transition, also known as the implementation period, must end on 31 December 2020 and there will be no request to the EU for a further extension.

A Downing Street source said: “Our manifesto made clear that we will not extend the implementation period and the new withdrawal agreement bill will legally prohibit government agreeing to any extension.”

Johnson’s move to make his manifesto promise legally binding was mooted during the election campaign. His pledge not to ask for another extension was used by the Brexit party leader, Nigel Farage, as the reason why he would stand down his candidates in 317 Tory-held seats.

The newly elected House of Commons is likely to have its first vote on Johnson’s Brexit plan on Friday, Downing Street said.

Late on Monday, the prime minister announced a small reshuffle of his cabinet, appointing Simon Hart as secretary of state for Wales after Alun Cairns stood down from the post over what he knew about an allegation that a former aide had sabotaged a rape trial.

The former culture secretary Nicky Morgan, who stood down as an MP, was re-appointed to the job, and simultaneously given a peerage. A replacement for the environment minister Zac Goldsmith, who lost his seat to the Liberal Democrats, is also set to be announced, with a much larger reshuffle expected in the New Year.

The Commons resumes on Tuesday with the timetable initially taken up with two days of swearing in MPs, followed by the state opening of parliament and the Queen’s speech.

Johnson’s spokesman said: “We plan to start the process before Christmas and will do so in the proper, constitutional way, in discussion with the Speaker.”

Under Johnson’s plan Britain is to leave the EU on 31 January once the bill passes, at which point the transition phase with the EU kicks in.

During this period, the UK is expected to leave the customs union and single market and enter new negotiated arrangements, but will follow most EU law like other member states. It will not have voting rights in the EU institutions.

There has been provision for the UK and EU to jointly agree, on a one-off basis, to extend that period by a further period of up to two years, under article 132 of the withdrawal agreement, which was hugely unpopular with with some Conservative MPs keen on a hard Brexit on World Trade Organization terms.

The governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, said Johnson’s election victory and majority in the Commons means the likelihood of the UK crashing out of the European Union has decreased.

“The worst-case scenario is effectively a no-deal, disorderly Brexit. The probability of that scenario has gone down because of the election result and the intention of the new government,” Carney said, speaking in a press conference after the publication of the central bank’s financial stability report.

“The scenario itself and the risks that we protect the system against has not itself changed, it’s just become less likely.”

The 109 new Tory MPs attended a private party with the prime minister last night to celebrate taking their seats, some in places that had been held by Labour for close to a century. They also posed for a photograph in parliament’s Westminster Hall.

Their first major task as MPs will be giving the withdrawal agreement bill its first reading, a formality not involving a debate, and then the second reading, which involves a debate as well as a vote.

Having both on the same day will need the formal approval of the new Commons Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle.

“We will present a bill which will ensure we get Brexit done before the end of January. It will reflect the agreement made with the EU on our withdrawal,” the No 10 spokesman said.

“The PM made clear during the general election campaign that he would be aiming for a Canada-style free trade agreement with no political alignment.”

While it is understood in Brussels that Johnson was unlikely to ask to extend the transition period, senior sources have suggested the EU itself could have sought to take the political pain out of such a move by asking for extra time.

Officials in Brussels have discussed such an option in recent days but the prime minister’s initiative would remove that safety net.

Such is the scale of the negotiation, the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has already said that a number of key areas will have to be dealt with after 2020, including aviation and any special arrangements for the UK’s financial services sector.

A failure to agree on state aid and environmental standards, among others, would lead to a tough and likely protracted negotiation on the level of tariffs that would be applied to goods crossing the channel.

The block on an extension also piles on the pressure on the government to have the right infrastructure ready at ports through which goods move from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
China and Russia Deploy Seductive Espionage Networks to Infiltrate U.S. Tech Sector
Apple’s ‘iPhone Air’ Collapses After One Month — Another Major Misstep for the Tech Giant
Graham Potter Begins New Chapter as Sweden Head Coach on Short-Term Deal
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa Alleges Poison Plot via Chocolate and Jam
Lakestar to Halt External Fundraising as Investor in Revolut and Spotify
U.S. Innovation Ranking Under Scrutiny as China Leads Output Outputs but Ranks 10th
Three Men Arrested in London on Suspicion of Spying for Russia
Porsche Reverses EV Strategy as New CEO Bets on Petrol and Hybrids
Singapore’s Prime Minister Warns of ‘Messy’ Transition to Post-American Global Order
Andreessen Horowitz Sets Sights on Ten-Billion-Dollar Fund for Tech Surge
US Administration Under President Donald Trump Reportedly Lifts Ban on Ukraine’s Use of Storm Shadow Missiles Against Russia
‘Frightening’ First Night in Prison for Sarkozy: Inmates Riot and Shout ‘Little Nicolas’
White House Announces No Imminent Summit Between Trump and Putin
US and Qatar Warn EU of Trade and Energy Risks from Tough Climate Regulation
Apple Challenges EU Digital Markets Act Crackdown in Landmark Court Battle
Nicolas Sarkozy begins five-year prison term at La Santé in Paris
Japan stocks surge to record as Sanae Takaichi becomes Prime Minister
This Is How the 'Heist of the Century' Was Carried Out at the Louvre in Seven Minutes: France Humiliated as Crown with 2,000 Diamonds Vanishes
China Warns UK of ‘Consequences’ After Delay to London Embassy Approval
France’s Wealthy Shift Billions to Luxembourg and Switzerland Amid Tax and Political Turmoil
"Sniper Position": Observation Post Targeting 'Air Force One' Found Before Trump’s Arrival in Florida
Shouting Match at the White House: 'Trump Cursed, Threw Maps, and Told Zelensky – "Putin Will Destroy You"'
Windows’ Own ‘Siri’ Has Arrived: You Can Now Talk to Your Computer
Thailand and Singapore Investigate Cambodian-Based Prince Group as U.S. and U.K. Sanctions Unfold
‘No Kings’ Protests Inflate Numbers — But History Shows Nations Collapse Without Strong Executive Power
Chinese Tech Giants Halt Stablecoin Launches After Beijing’s Regulatory Intervention
Manhattan Jury Holds BNP Paribas Liable for Enabling Sudanese Government Abuses
Trump Orders Immediate Release of Former Congressman George Santos After Commuting Prison Sentence
S&P Downgrades France’s Credit Rating, Citing Soaring Debt and Political Instability
Ofcom Rules BBC’s Gaza Documentary ‘Materially Misleading’ Over Narrator’s Hamas Ties
Diane Keaton’s Cause of Death Revealed as Pneumonia, Family Confirms
Former Lostprophets Frontman Ian Watkins Stabbed to Death in British Prison
"The Tsunami Is Coming, and It’s Massive": The World’s Richest Man Unveils a New AI Vision
Outsider, Heroine, Trailblazer: Diane Keaton Was Always a Little Strange — and Forever One of a Kind
Dramatic Development in the Death of 'Mango' Founder: Billionaire's Son Suspected of Murder
Two Years of Darkness: The Harrowing Testimonies of Israeli Hostages Emerging From Gaza Captivity
EU Moves to Use Frozen Russian Assets to Buy U.S. Weapons for Ukraine
Europe Emerges as the Biggest Casualty in U.S.-China Rare Earth Rivalry
HSBC Confronts Strategic Crossroads as NAB Seeks Only Retail Arm in Australia Exit
U.S. Chamber Sues Trump Over $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee
Shenzhen Expo Spotlights China’s Quantum Step in Semiconductor Self-Reliance
China Accelerates to the Forefront in Global Nuclear Fusion Race
Yachts, Private Jets, and a Picasso Painting: Exposed as 'One of the Largest Frauds in History'
×