EU President: Finish Brexit negotiation before 2019 election

Mr Osborne’s speech to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs is one of few public interventions he has made, since being sacked as chancellor when Theresa May became prime minister.

He said: “This was not a popular mandate for less free trade or for a more closed economy”.

“Brexit means Brexit and that means delivering on their instructions and restoring United Kingdom control over our laws, borders, money and trade”, he said in the message.

Smith – widely expected to lose heavily – ran on a campaign including a demand for a second referendum once the details of a Brexit deal are known.

On the other side, finance minister Philip Hammond is among those reportedly backing a less hardline approach that would retain more ties with the European Union, particularly for the economically crucial City of London financial hub. Then there’s the process of negotiating the divorce agreement, then working out the new trading and immigration arrangements we want with the EU.

Mr Booth said that the size of the UK’s economy and its position as a key member of both the UN Security Council and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation should enable Mrs May to achieve her goal of an “ambitious” bespoke deal for Britain, rather than the off-the-shelf models in place with Norway or Switzerland.

Johnson said it in the “overwhelming interest” of the European Union to give Britain a favorable Brexit deal, which allows it to control migration while retaining access to the single market. “But yet the Brexiteers are the ones who say “we’re going to establish strong bilateral trade relations with third parties”.

Speaking at the beginning of the hour-long talks, Mrs May reiterated that formal negotiations would not be launched this year.

Meanwhile former prime minister David Cameron’s communications chief said Johnson could not make his mind up whether to back Brexit or not in the June 23 referendum, sending Cameron conflicting texts in quick succession.

“What Japanese businesses in Europe most wish to avoid is the situation in which they are unable to discern clearly the way the Brexit negotiations are going, only grasping the whole picture at the last minute”, Japan said.

In particular he predicted “political sacrifices”, speculating there were one too many ministers with Brexit on their portfolio. Once it does, there is a two-year timeline laid out for talks.

The split has resulted in a fierce tug of war over responsibilities, with Mr Johnson resisting attempts to poach staff from the Foreign Office.

Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty begins a two-year countdown during which negotiations would have to be complete, so it would need to be invoked by May next year for talks to be finished by the time European Union elections come.

“A fair deal that allows freedom to trade without unrestricted freedom of movement is the clear best solution, for us, and for them”.

“Remainers want to keep free trade, Brexiteers above all want to end freedom of movement”, he said.

The UK is asking for a Brexit deal that is “not feasible” for the EU, the President of the European Parliament has told Sky News.

A government spokesman said the non-disclosure was not a decision taken by the government but by the court.