Dr. Martina Lawless:

I did look this up. The record is approximately seven months but that was between a very large country and a quite small country. It was not precisely an equal partnership. There is a possibility that the transition agreement will need to be extended in order to give time for the free trade agreement to be fully negotiated and ratified but there still remains a small but significant risk that the end of 2020 could be another cliff-edge Brexit. If there is no free trade agreement negotiated at that point, we will be back to the stage of a WTO crash-out Brexit. It is not off the agenda as a risk.