Theresa May wants two-year 'implementation' UK EU deal

Theresa May has suggested an "implementation period" of "around two years" after the UK leaves the EU in 2019.

At her speech in Florence, the prime minister said "neither the UK, nor the EU and its members states, will be in a position to implement smoothly many of the detailed arrangements" in their post-Brexit relationship.

She said people and businesses should only have to plan for one set of changes, and her suggestion meant: "These arrangements will create valuable certainty."