Spokesman says objective is to end transition period by 1 January with or without trade deal

Britain’s main goal in trade talks with the EU will be to “restore economic and political independence from 1 January”, No 10 has said, as the government prepares to publish its negotiating aims on Thursday.

Boris Johnson’s official spokesman said the “primary objective” was ending the transition period by the end of the year, regardless of whether a deal had been struck.

His comments suggest the UK will be prepared to walk away from talks rather than submit to the EU’s requests for some oversight by the European court of justice (ECJ) and future alignment on regulation.

The UK has said it will push for a Canada-style trade deal but appears to be prioritising the freedom to set its own rules rather than achieving such an agreement, if the EU insists on more alignment than it has with Canada.

The negotiating aims are expected to be signed off by the “XS” committee – including Johnson, Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, and Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary – on Tuesday after an earlier cabinet meeting.

The EU’s negotiating priorities are due to be published on Tuesday after a meeting of the EU general affairs council and Monday’s meeting of ambassadors.

Johnson has been warned that the French government will not be blackmailed into a trade deal that risks France’s long-term economic interests, as the EU prepared to further harden its negotiating position.

No 10’s latest statement of intent echoes remarks made last week by David Frost, the UK’s chief negotiator with the EU. In a speech, he claimed the democratic consent of the British public would “snap dramatically and finally” if the UK continued to be tied to EU rules.

Frost said No 10 was not engaging in game-playing by rejecting alignment with EU laws after 2020 and insisted that the ability to break free from the EU’s rulebook was essential to the purpose of Brexit.

“We are not looking for anything special,” he said in the speech.

Frost, a former ambassador to Denmark, went on to reject suggestions that the ECJ would supervise any “level playing field” conditions designed to ensure that neither side undercuts the other.

He also said the UK would not take part in any EU programmes or agencies that put the country under the jurisdiction of the EU court.

“We bring to the negotiations not some clever tactical positioning but the fundamentals of what it means to be an independent country,” Frost said. “It is central to our vision that we must have the ability to set laws that suit us – to claim the right that every other non-EU country in the world has.”

A senior government source said No 10’s “red line” was avoiding any oversight from the ECJ and rejecting alignment of regulations with Brussels.

“Our overriding objective in the negotiations is by 1 January to have taken back control and we won’t agree to anything that doesn’t deliver that. Which means no rule-taking from the EU and no role for the European Court of Justice,” the source said.

“Our red line is we have to have taken back full control by 1 January … Independence and fully taking back control is the priority. We want to do that through a Canada FTA (free trade agreement) but ultimately our priority is taking back control.”



