LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s opposition Labour Party will hold Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government to its promise of securing a free trade deal with the European Union by the end of the year, the spokesman for its leader Keir Starmer said on Wednesday.
Johnson has suggested an agreement could be achieved in July but negotiators on both sides have so far given a downbeat assessment of talks.
“We want the government to get a deal. The government has said it will get it done by the end of the year. We will hold them to that promise,” the spokesman told reporters.
Britain left the EU on Jan. 31 and its relationship with the bloc is now governed by a transition arrangement that keeps previous rules in place while the two sides negotiate new terms.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper and Michael Holden; editing by Stephen Addison)
