UK may need Brexit transition period, but it will not be unlimited: Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May leaves Downing Street in London, Britain June 28, 2017. (Photo by Reuters)

UK Prime Minister Theresa May has said that Britain may need an implementation phase to smooth its exit from the European Union.

“When we know what the future relationship with the EU will be, we may need implementation periods,” May told parliament on Wednesday.

“But I am very clear, this does not mean unlimited transitional phase: We are going to leave the European Union. That's what people wanted and that's what we will deliver,” she added.

On Monday, May secured her grip on power after Conservatives struck a deal with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) which will see them support her minority government.

The governing agreement was announced two weeks after the prime minister’s party lost its parliamentary majority in the botched June 8 snap election.

The opposition Labour and Liberal Democrat parties are calling for amendments to May’s pared-down program which she outlined last week.

With regards to the Grenfell tower incident that killed 79 people in mid June, May said that 120 tower blocks had failed fire and that there was a wider fire safety issue that was the result of failures over many decades.

Corbyn warned that the tragedy has “exposed the disastrous effect of austerity”.

Corbyn said, “This disregard for working class communities, the terrible consequences of deregulation and cutting corners - I urge the prime minister to come up with the resources needed to test and remove cladding, retrofit sprinklers, properly fund the fire service and the police so that all our communities can feel safe in their own homes.”

May responded by outlining what she said was the longer-term political background to the cladding issue, saying “It's an issue that has been continuing for many years, for decades, in terms of cladding being put up in buildings. There are real questions, as to how this has happened, why it's happened and how we can ensure that it doesn't happen in the future.”

May had called for a snap election in April in hopes of getting an increased parliamentary majority that could have strengthened her position before going into two years of intense negotiations with the European Union about Britain’s departure from the bloc.

However, British voters dealt her a devastating blow, wiping out her parliamentary majority and throwing the country into political turmoil.