Chris Grayling says Article 50 announcement 'best thing for restoring confidence' in Britain

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has said triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty is the best move to restore confidence in Britain. Speaking on ITV's Peston on Sunday, the cabinet minister discussed Prime Minister Theresa May's announcement to begin the two-year negotiating process out of the European Union in March 2017.

He said invoking the article would gave businesses and people alike certainty about Britain's exit following June's EU Referendum vote.

"Or job is to negotiate the right deal for Britain and the right deal for the European Union," Grayling said.

"So with that in mind, it is really important that we give some certainty about the process.

"Since the vote in June, cabinet ministers have carried out the groundwork and part of the process includes when to announce the triggering of Article 50.

"Theresa May was never going to trigger it by the end of the year, but we were clear that you can't let it dribble out into the future and it was the proper thing to do and to set a date and get on with it."

In addition to triggering Article 50, Grayling confirmed, on the back of the prime minister's announcement on the Andrew Marr Show, that the Great Repeal Act would be featured in the next Queen's Speech.

The move will expunge the European Communities Act of 1972 from statute and enshrine all existing EU law into British legislation during the next Parliament.

Grayling however failed to confirm which specific laws would be repealed and which ones would be kept.

He said: "There's some things we want to keep – in the area of the environment for example, in the area of workers' rights – and there are other things we want to get rid of."

When pushed by host Robert Peston to specify which laws would be jettisoned.

Grayling replied: "Well, what people want, in my view, is a degree of certainty as to what's going to happen.

"If you're running a business, you don't want to think that there's a day at which all the rules you operate by fall of a cliff. You're very happy to countenance change, you're happy that we change things in the way things benefit your business, but you don't want dramatic change with uncertainty.

"The point about this is that it allows us to change over time the things we don't want and it allows us to keep the things we do want."

However, Ronald Rudd, treasurer of the Remain Campaign during the referendum, said the business community would be "disappointed" in the lack of certainty provided.

"They will want to have assurances they will be in the single market," he stressed.

"They will want to monitor free movement, but not end it.

"And lastly, they will want to know that Britain remains a rule maker and not a rule taker in these organisations, because we have had a big say in these agreements in the past."