Dominic Raab made the comment in a letter to the House of Commons Brexit scrutiny committee, dated October 24 but only now made public.
“I would be happy to give evidence to the committee when a deal is finalised, and currently expect November 21 to be suitable,” he wrote. Both Raab and Oliver Robbins, Prime Minister Theresa May’s chief Brexit adviser, have been invited to address the committee on that date.
Most of the divorce deal with Brussels is agreed but talks remain stuck on how to avoid new checks on Britain’s land border with EU member Ireland after it leaves the bloc’s single market and customs union.
Raab will visit the UK province of Northern Ireland today on a “fact-finding trip”, which will include meetings with local businesses and politicians, an official in his ministry said. Raab wrote: “The end is now firmly in sight and, while obstacles remain, it cannot be beyond us to navigate them.”
However, May’s spokesman refused to repeat the date of November 21, only repeating that “we wish to conclude the deal as quickly as possible”. Previously, he had said the government was pressing for a deal this autumn.
British officials are keen to avoid the negotiations dragging on, with Brexit day scheduled for March 29.
Separately, Raab’s predecessor David Davis, who quit over the government’s approach to Brexit in July, said the final deal will likely pass when it comes to a vote in the House of Commons.
Davis is among a large minority of May’s Conservative MPs who strongly oppose her strategy, raising fears the deal will be rejected.
“The fear of no deal, I think....that will win and there will be a deal,” Davis told an event on Tuesday evening, according to Sky News television.
Davis yesterday retracted his reported remarks saying that any deal similar to May’s current plan of close economic ties with the EU “will not pass the Commons”.
Meanwhile, Nicky Morgan, who chairs parliament’s Treasury Select Committee, said it could take decades for Britain to determine the shape of financial services industry regulation after Brexit.
Britain and the EU aim to secure a “standstill” or business as usual transition deal starting after Brexit next March, but the country will need new trading terms with the bloc from the end of 2020.
EU officials have said that the EU’s financial market access system known as equivalence, where Brussels grants access to foreign banks and insurers if their home rules converge with the bloc’s, is probably Britain’s best bet.
Morgan told an industry conference yesterday the Treasury committee would look at equivalence and post-Brexit financial services in early 2019.
“The story of the next 40 years of this country, or it could be longer, in relation to that future relationship with the EU, is going to be whether we converge, stay the same or whether we choose to diverge and go our own way,” Morgan told the Personal Investment Management & Financial Advice Association annual conference.