‘10 years for Britain to strike final Brexit deal’

It could take the UK up to 10 years to strike a final agreement to leave the EU, a leading economist has said.

Philip O’Sullivan, chief economist at Investec Ireland, said working out all the details of the divorce accord that will govern the UK’s new relationship with the EU after it leaves the bloc will go on for years.

Speaking in a personal capacity and not on behalf of the bank, Mr O’Sullivan said it took tiny Greenland years to reach an agreement before it finally ceded from the EU in the 1980s.