London(ANN)-A senior British cabinet minister says the top priority of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government is to leave the European Union on January 31 and secure a new trade deal with the bloc by the end of next year.
Michael Gove, the UK environment minister, said on Sunday that Johnson would fulfill his promise to “get Brexit done” after his Conservative party was re-elected with a majority of 80 seats last week.
“What I can absolutely confirm is that we’ll have an opportunity to vote on the Withdrawal Agreement Bill in relatively short order and then we will make sure that it passes before January 31,” Gove said in an interview with Sky News.
“We will have concluded our conversations with the EU about the new framework of free trade and friendly cooperation by the end of next year,” he added.
Gove further noted that the government’s top domestic priority would be shoring up the public health service and and ploughing money into the Britain’s National Health Service (NHS).
With just a week until Christmas, the British premier is trying to expedite plans for his Brexit bill, carry out a cabinet reshuffle and present a Queen’s speech.
Gove said the centerpiece of the Queen’s speech would be legislation to enshrine extra funding for the NHS in law and measures to spread “equality of opportunity” across the country.
Government sources said Johnson was likely to carry out a substantial reshuffle on Monday and that the Queen’s speech would take place on Thursday before the introduction of the Brexit bill by the end of the week.
Source: presstv.com