May says wants to avoid Brexit 'cliff edge' for business

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May said on Tuesday she wanted to avoid a "disruptive cliff edge" for businesses when Britain leaves the European Union and she backed a phasing-in of changes in immigration, customs and regulation in areas such as financial services.

"It is in no one's interests for there to be a cliff edge for business or a threat to stability as we change our existing relationship to a new partnership with the EU," May said in speech.

"By this I do not mean that we will seek some form of unlimited transitional status in which we find ourselves stuck forever in some kind of permanent political purgatory," she said.

She wanted to have struck a new deal with the EU by the end of a two-year period for negotiations to leave the bloc.

"From that point onwards, we believe that a phased process of implementation, in which both Britain and the EU institutions and member states prepare for the new arrangements that will exist between us, will be in our mutual self interest," she added.

(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan and Costas Pitas; Writing by William Schomberg; editing by Stephen Addison)