The UK government is likely to trigger article 50 and begin the process of the country’s formal departure from the European Union early next year, Boris Johnson has said.

In a rare hint of the government’s concrete plans for Brexit, the foreign secretary told Sky News that ministers would also set out the principles for departure at that time, and suggested the exit procedure could take less than the scheduled two years.

However, Downing Street pointedly declined to back up Johnson’s contention. Theresa May has previously made clear her frustration with ministers expressing views on how a Brexit deal or process might look.

A Downing Street spokesman said: “The government’s position has not changed – we will not trigger article 50 before the end of 2016 and we are using this time to prepare for the negotiations.”

In the interview from New York, where he has been at the United Nations, Johnson said the government was “talking to our European friends and partners now in the expectation that by the early part of next year you will see an article 50 letter.

“We will invoke that, and in that letter I’m sure we will be setting out some parameters for how we propose to take this forward – principles.”



Article 50 sets a two-year limit for departure to be finalised, but Johnson suggested the process might take less time. “You invoke article 50 in the early part of next year, you have two years to pull it off. I don’t actually think we will necessarily need to spend a full two years. But let’s see how we go.”

Johnson gave few other clues as to what form of Brexit might be pursued, beyond an assurance of continued trade with the EU: “We are going to benefit from the fantastic opportunities for greater free trade with our friends in the EU,” he said.

“It’s overwhelmingly in their interests. Not only do we buy more German cars than anybody else, we drink more Italian wine than any other country in Europe – 300m litres of prosecco every year. They’re not going to put that at risk.”

He dismissed warnings from within the EU that Britain would have to choose between restricting immigration from the bloc and keeping access to its single market.

“They would have us believe that there is some automatic trade-off between what they call access to the single market and free movement,” Johnson said. “Complete baloney. Absolute baloney.

“The two things have nothing to do with each other. We should go for a jumbo free trade deal and take back control of our immigration policy.”

Johnson’s comments came as May held talks at Downing Street with Martin Schulz, the president of the European parliament. Before the hour-long discussion Schulz, from Germany’s Social Democrats, urged the UK to begin the formal Brexit process as soon as possible.



In a statement, Schulz said he would “stress why the European parliament favours the earliest possible triggering of article 50”. He said: “The UK has decided to leave the EU, but it will continue to be a European country with values and geopolitical interests, which are common to the rest of the continent.”

A Downing Street source said May and Schulz had talked in general terms about Britain’s departure, but that neither had offered any definite plans or schedules. They also discussed wider free trade issues, including an EU trade deal currently being negotiated with Canada.

Schulz was also to meet the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, and the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, during his visit.

Open Britain, a pressure group formed from the remnants of the remain campaign during the EU referendum, expressed concern. Dominic Grieve, the Conservative MP and former attorney general, said: “The government needs to have a much clearer position by the time they trigger article 50, including whether they want Britain to keep the single market membership, which is so crucial to our economy.

“The process must not be unnecessarily rushed. It’s the quality of the agreement we get that matters, not the speed with which it is agreed. In complex negotiations, patience is a virtue.”

Earlier on Thursday it emerged that one of Johnson’s junior ministers, Alan Duncan, said he did not believe the leading leave campaigner wanted the referendum to go his way. In comments filmed the day before the referendum and featured in the BBC2 documentary A Very British Coup? Duncan said his future boss was more motivated by personal ambition.

“I think it will be 52 remain and 48 leave,” Duncan said when asked to predict the result. “I think there are a lot of leave people who don’t believe it, and I’ve always thought that Boris’s wish was to lose by one so that he could be the heir apparent without having to have all the … you know, S-H-I-T of clearing up all the mess, that’s always been my view of Boris.

“By championing leave, he can be the darling of the activists, but it would be quite good if he didn’t actually win the referendum because there would be total chaos.”