We are about to enter a crucial period, the Chief Minister told a Tynwald committee investigating the island’s Brexit preparations.

He was speaking ahead of the European Council summit in Brussels where leaders from the 27 member states accepted the transitional deal thrashed out between Westminster and EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier.

In an opening statement to the constitutional, legal affairs and justice committee, Mr Quayle outlined the work done so far by government to deal with the implications of the UK’s withdrawal from Europe.

He said: ’I think we are about to enter a crucial period.’

Under the deal agreed in Brussels on Friday, there will be a 21-month transition period after the formal exit date on March 29 next year, during which Britain will be free to negotiate and sign trade agreements.

Free movement and the Customs Union will also continue until the end of December 2020.

Mr Quayle said work done so far by the Cabinet Office Brexit team had put us on a ’good footing’ as negotiations reach their ’critical final stages during the next six months’.

He said the best outcome we could have hoped for was our inclusion in the scope of the withdrawal agreement. ’We will have kept what we have now as the UK remains in transition,’ he said.