Letter: Brexit deadline must be extended

We formally left the European Union on January 31 and the government started to engage in trade talks with them soon afterwards.

However, since then, the coronavirus has intervened and absorbed most of our government’s attention – as it has the attention of all EU governments.

Under these circumstances it is unrealistic to expect that we could secure a new and effective trade deal with the EU in the limited time available, while we are still dealing with a deadly pandemic at home.

Nevertheless, the government currently insists that the “transition period” cannot be extended beyond December 31, leading to the likelihood of a no-deal or a bad deal Brexit. Extending the transition period would give us time to focus on the pandemic now and work out a good deal with Europe later.

We know that the coronavirus pandemic is going to have a massive effect on the UK’s economy (this is already happening), and we know that a no-deal Brexit will also have a significant impact. So we must make sure that we don’t have to deal with both of these at the same time.

The only way to do this is by putting pressure on our government to ask the EU for an extension to the transition period beyond December 31. If we don’t do that, we will be endangering even more lives and livelihoods.

Robert Monro, Whitchurch