Pro-European Union supporters and pro-Brexit supporters hold up placards during a demonstration against Brexit in Green Park in London on July 9, 2016. | Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP via Getty Images Brexit could be delayed to end of 2019: report Hold-up could cause problems in France, Germany.

Britain isn't ready to leave the European Union, which could push back Brexit until the end of 2019, according to British media reports Sunday.

Ministers have privately warned senior figures in the City of London that the government departments for Brexit and international trade — both created by Theresa May when she took office — are not in a position to negotiate the U.K.'s withdrawal from the EU, the Sunday Times reported.

May had always cautioned that she would not trigger Article 50 — which officially gets divorce proceedings underway — until the beginning of 2017.

That may be unrealistic, the British broadsheet reported, as the new departments do not have the staff and expertise for negotiations.

Any delay could lead to bigger problems across the Continent. France and Germany hold national elections next year, and May could be urged to wait until after those ballots before triggering Article 50. That would push the start of the two-year divorce proceedings back until the end of 2017, with the process ending at the end of 2019.

Separately, tensions have risen between U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, according to a leaked letter seen by the Sunday Telegraph and picked up by the Guardian newspaper.

Fox had written May within two weeks of his new job to request his department take charge of the economic diplomacy.

Fox called for a “rational restructuring” of the departments and suggested his department take “clear leadership of the trade and investment agenda,” with Johnson leading on diplomacy and security, including oversight of the intelligence services, according to the Guardian.

It is unclear what the response was from May, but Johnson's office did agree to send several staff to work for Fox.