The United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union on June 23, but implementation could take longer than expected as the government is “too chaotic” to start the two-year process in 2017, according to a report from the Sunday Times.
The United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union could be delayed until late 2019 or longer, according to a report from the Sunday Times.
The UK voted to leave the EU on June 23, but must invoke “Article 50” in order to officially begin the two-year negotiation process to depart. Sources briefed by ministers told the newspaper officials are hesitant to start those discussions in early 2017 as originally planned because the government is “too chaotic.”
New British Prime Minister Theresa May, who lobbied against the Brexit vote, has said previously she will not invoke Article 50 this year as the county needs time to prepare for the negotiations.
“Ministers are now thinking the [Article 50] trigger could be delayed until autumn 2017,” one source told the Sunday Times. “They don’t have the infrastructure for the people they need to hire. They say they don’t even know the right questions to ask when they finally begin bargaining with Europe.”
Reached for comment, a spokeswoman for the office of the Prime Minister said, “The Prime Minister has been clear that a top priority for this government is to deliver the decision of the British people to leave the EU and make a success of Brexit. The PM has set out the government’s position on Article 50 and has established a new department dedicated to taking forward the negotiations.”
Those departments, headed by prominent supporters of the Brexit movement David Davis and Liam Fox, have only recruited fewer than 200 of the roughly 1,250 staff they say are needed to properly negotiate an exit from the EU, according to the Sunday Times report.
EU government officials, as well as members of the UK’s Conservative party, have pushed for a quick resolution to the Brexit to minimize uncertainty and volatility in financial markets. Concerns have been growing, however, that the two-year deadline for negotiating the U.K.’s exit from the EU doesn’t give the parties sufficient time to untie the complex political and economic bonds that currently bind them together.
Elections in France in May, and Germany in September, could also potentially delay the negotiation process.
Report: Brexit could be delayed until late 2019
