DAVID Davis has insisted the UK will be out of the EU customs union and single market by March 2019, appearing to place himself at loggerheads with Philip Hammond who has championed transitional arrangements to steer clear of a trading “cliff-edge”.

The Brexit secretary made clear he expected the UK to have left the EU arrangement within the two-year timetable set out under the Article 50 process.

His comments came as the Chancellor repeated his call for a transitional deal to avoid a "disruptive and dangerous cliff-edge" in trading links with the Brussels bloc after Brexit.

Downing Street quickly sought to shut down public discussion by ministers about the length of any transition or implementation phase, insisting this would be part of the Brexit negotiations.

"The position the Prime Minister has set out many times hasn't changed,” declared Theresa May’s deputy spokeswoman. “It's not in anyone's interest for there to be a cliff-edge. We want to give certainty to businesses; that's the position of David Davis and Philip Hammond also.

"What the Prime Minister has been clear about is that clearly leaving the EU means we will be leaving the customs union. What that looks like and the phases of implementation and so on will all be subject to negotiation."

Addressing company executives at an event hosted by The Times, the Brexit secretary said he believed exit talks would be done by the two-year deadline.

Asked if the UK would be straight out of the customs union, he replied: "I would have thought so."

The secretary of state then said any transition period was likely to end in 2022 as he described Mr Hammond's previous comments on the potential timescale as "not quite consistent with one another".

"What he's actually said[is] the most important thing is it's got to be done before the election so that's a maximum of three years."

Mr Davis said he was "entirely aligned" with the Chancellor about putting jobs and prosperity first. “So much so I didn't even think it was necessary to say it at the beginning," he explained.

Speaking in Berlin to the CDU Economic Council, Mr Hammond insisted there had to be a "smooth and orderly path" to the new arrangements under any Brexit deal.

Although he did not put a timescale on the transitional process, Mr Hammond said businesses “all need certainty, well ahead of time, that they won't have tariffs suddenly imposed on them part-way through their contracts or that their shipments won't face customs delays and bureaucratic costs or that the enforceability of their contracts will not be called into question.

"Early agreement on these transitional arrangements, so that trade between our countries can carry on flowing smoothly, will reduce uncertainty, unlock investment decisions, instil business confidence and protect jobs and prosperity, in Britain, in Germany and across this continent."

In a side-swipe at Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson's position of being in favour of "having our cake and eating it" by securing all the benefits of EU membership without the drawbacks, Mr Hammond said: "The question is not whether to have cake, or eat it or even who has the largest slice, the question that matters is whether we can be smart enough to work out how to continue collaborating together, to keep the cake expanding, for the benefit of all."

Roland Rudd, chairman of Open Britain - which is campaigning against a hard Brexit - said: "To protect our economy during the Brexit process, it is vital that the Government negotiates a transitional period that keeps Britain in the single market and customs union until a trade deal that gives us the 'exact same benefits' can be negotiated.

"It is truly concerning that the Brexit Secretary appears to have ruled this out.

"I hope that common sense wins the day within Whitehall, and the Chancellor and other ministers make their views known and prevent a hard Brexit with no transition that would put our economy at risk."

Speaking about the Tories’ “disastrous” election campaign, Mr Davis admitted some very significant mistakes were made.

“The social care proposals pretty much switched off a very large Tory vote in the elderly sector. Those on doing away with free school meals for certain categories of children hit another Tory vote sector in the middle age group.

"That, then, just knocked the whole campaign off balance and forced us into a U-turn which in turn undermined Theresa May’s standing and the rest is history," added the Brexit secretary.