Theresa May has said she will seek an “early agreement” with other EU states on the status of UK nationals living elsewhere in Europe and EU nationals in Britain.
The prime minister also acknowledged business fears about a sudden “cliff-edge” change at the point of Brexit.
“They want to know with some certainty how things are going to go forward,” she told the CBI conference in London yesterday.
Mrs May was responding to concerns raised by the organisation’s president Paul Drechsler about a “sudden and overnight” change to trading relations.
Number 10 would not be drawn on whether this meant the prime minister was seeking an interim agreement to cover the transitional period between the UK’s departure from the EU and the ratification of a new trade deal.
Mrs May’s official spokeswoman added that the call for an early agreement did not necessarily mean uncertainty over EU nationals’ situation would be resolved before the completion of Article 50 negotiations, expected in 2019.
She said: “I wouldn’t interpret it like that. This is a two-year process once we trigger Article 50.
“As the prime minister has said, it’s about how we can work towards an early agreement, without specifying beyond that.
“The prime minister was setting out an objective as part of looking at how we can provide certainty to people.”
In an apparent rejection of calls for a ‘quickie divorce’, Mrs May told business leaders the process of leaving the EU would “take time”.