18 months for talks is ‘ample’

Mr Johnson made the remark to journalists at a meeting of Nato foreign ministers today, after Mr Barnier set out the short period in his first major statement on Brexit.

Mr Johnson said: “I think that with a fair wind and everybody acting in a positive and compromising mood - and I am sure they will - we can get a great deal for the UK and for the rest of Europe within that time frame. I see no reason why not, at all. That time frame seems to me to be absolutely ample.”

Mr Barnier, speaking at a press conference in Brussels, said today that “time will be short”. If article 50 is triggered at the end of March, he said it would set off a two-year negotiation period before the deal would have to be finalised.

However he added that would include a few weeks for the European Council to set guidelines plus several months at the end of the period for the deal to be ratified by the European Council and Parliament and finally by the UK.

“All in all there will be less than 18 months to negotiate,” he said. “…it is safe to say an article 50 deal could be reached by October 2018.”

Mr Barnier also said that the UK would not be able to 'cherry pick' rights and said single market membership required free movement of workers.

The exit deal will have to include as matters of priority such issues as the rights of expats in the UK and the EU and debts to be settled by both sides. Other issues would also include preparing for the withdrawal of British civil servants working in the EU institutions and the British MEPs and relocating EU agencies out of the UK.

The complex issue of future trading arrangements may be left for a future deal – but in which case there will the thorny matter of what, if any, ‘transitional arrangements’ should be left in place in between the UK leaving the EU and a final trade deal being made.

Some of the EU leaders are keen for Britain to have left the EU before the next European Parliament elections in May or June 2019.

The prospect of negotiations dragging on for years after the ‘article 50 deal’ is also unpopular with many of those in the ‘Leave’ camp in the UK who fear it would mean Britain having to remain compliant with various EU requirements indefinitely.