The Department for Exiting the European Union is to be folded up once the United Kingdom leaves the bloc at the ending of January.
A government spokesman said personnel in the department, founded by Theresa May following the referendum outcome in 2016, had been notified. “We are very obliged for all their job, and we will support everyone to find new positions,” the spokesperson said.
The news appears amid reports of the government’s plan to change the language practised to describe the UK’s exit from the EU to reinforce the concept that “Brexit is done”.
According to international media, the prime minister has directed executives to drop the term “Brexit” once the withdrawal agreement is passed and the UK leaves the European Union on January 31 as outlined. The website reports that No 10’s Brexit press unit will be renamed later that, with “Europe and economy” one new name being floated by executives.
Asked concerning the reports, a government spokesman said: “I believe the PM is obvious that on January 31 we will have got Brexit done and then the centre will be on the eventual relationship with the European Union.” Questioned if the prime minister’s spokespeople would apply the word after that case, one said: “I believe it’s a word that will be with us for an extended period to come.”
MPs are presumed to vote on Boris Johnson’s withdrawal agreement bill on Friday, with the Conservative party’s 80-seat preponderance conceding for its speedy passage within parliament. The bill could pass by the Commons by January 10 and through the Lords one or two weeks following.
The UK will next begin the so-called implementation period, during which it will be carefully regulated to EU rules, until December 31 2020. Johnson has asserted that he can grasp a trade deal by then, notwithstanding criticism that 11 months is an unprecedentedly little time for such a complicated negotiation.
The Department for Exiting the European Union, also identified as DExEU, was founded in July 2016 to “supervise negotiations to leave the EU and build the future connection between the UK and EU”.
The unit was formed by merging staff from the Cabinet Office’s Europe Unit, the Europe directorate of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and the UK’s permanent representation to the EU.
Three Brexit secretaries have headed DExEU: David Davis; Dominic Raab, presently the foreign secretary; and most lately by Stephen Barclay.