Brexit trade deal is signed into law
‘The moment is finally upon us… now is the time to seize it’: Boris Johnson hails ‘new beginning in our country’s history’ as Queen grants royal assent to his Brexit trade deal meaning divorce happens at 11pm tonight
- The Prime Minister thanked MPs and peers for rushing the Bill through Parliament in just one day
- The Bill takes effect at exactly 11pm this evening when the UK leaves the Brexit transition period after a year
- At 12.25am, Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle told MPs the Bill been granted royal assent by the Queen
- It enshrines in law the trade agreement finally negotiated between London and Brussels last week
Boris Johnson has heralded a ‘new beginning in our country’s history’ after his Brexit trade deal was signed into law, setting the stage for a smooth divorce from the EU tonight.
The Prime Minister thanked MPs and peers for rushing the Bill through Parliament in just one day so it could take effect at exactly 11pm this evening when the UK’s transition period ends.
At 12.25am, Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle told MPs that the EU (Future Relationship) Act 2020, had been granted royal assent by the Queen.
It enshrines in legislation the trade agreement finally negotiated between London and Brussels last week following more than four years of wrangling since the referendum.
Shortly before Her Majesty gave the Act her seal of approval, a bullish Mr Johnson marked out a new chapter for Britain, which first joined the bloc in 1973.
He said in a statement: ‘I want to thank my fellow MPs and peers for passing this historic Bill and would like to express my gratitude to all of the staff here in Parliament and across Government who have made today possible.
‘The destiny of this great country now resides firmly in our hands.
‘We take on this duty with a sense of purpose and with the interests of the British public at the heart of everything we do.
’11pm on December 31 marks a new beginning in our country’s history and a new relationship with the EU as their biggest ally. This moment is finally upon us and now is the time to seize it.’
Boris Johnson formally signed his Brexit trade deal with the EU yesterday as he brought the curtain down on four years of wrangling over the UK’s split from Brussels
A rare behind-the-scenes photograph of the Prime Minister behind the Speaker’s chair heading back to the Commons chamber after voting on the long-awaited Brexit deal
Royal assent enshrines in legislation the trade agreement (one of the documents signed by PM yesterday) finally negotiated between London and Brussels last week following more than four years of wrangling since the referendum
The Bill easily sailed through both chambers yesterday – MPs voted by 521 to 73 at third reading, while peers gave it an unopposed third reading late on Wednesday night.
Sir Keir Starmer branded it a ‘thin deal’ but whipped Labour MPs to vote with the Government, acknowledging it was the only alternative to a No Deal exit.
However in his New Year’s message last night he struck an optimistic tone and, although making no direct reference to Brexit, said ‘the country’s best years are still to come’ as the UK forges a ‘new path’ in the world.
MPs were still in the Commons chamber in the early hours of this morning when Sir Lindsay informed the House of the Queen’s royal assent.
Prompting cheers from Conservative MPs, he said: ‘I have to notify the House, in accordance with the Royal Assent Act 1967, that Her Majesty signified her royal assent to the following Act: European Union (Future Relationship Act) 2020.’
The SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford quickly branded the Act an ‘act of constitutional vandalism’ because the devolved parliaments have refused to signal their approval.
Forty-four Scottish Nationalists had voted against the deal and were joined in the ‘No’ lobby by 11 Lib Dems and 8 DUP MPs.
Brexiteers were by contrast in jubiliant mood when the monarch gave her royal assent. Tory MP Craig Mackinlay tweeted: ‘Good to be in the House of Commons chamber at 00.30 to hear this welcome news from Her Majesty. Brexit delivered.’
Fellow Conservative backbencher Adam Afriyie declared that ‘we are now, in law, a sovereign, independent, self-governing United Kingdom once again.’
Cabinet minister Penny Mourdant said: ‘The result of the 2016 referendum has been delivered. Now we must deliver on the hope and ambition that accompanied the vote. A new day, a new year and a new chapter for the United Kingdom.’
But celebrations of the kind seen last January when the UK officially ceased to be an EU member state – a huge rally in Parliament Square – will be muted tonight because of the coronavirus pandemic which has largely eclipsed Brexit this year.
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle told MPs that the EU (Future Relationship) Act 2020, had been granted royal assent by the Queen
MPs in the House of Commons voted in favour of the hard fought 1,200 page trade deal yesterday by 521 votes to 73, a majority of 448
The Brexit trade agreement touched down at London City airport on an RAF flight yesterday afternoon after being signed by EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen
At 11pm UK time – midnight in Brussels – the transition period will end, meaning Britain will be outside the Single Market and free from following the EU’s rules.
Under the agreement struck between the UK’s chief negotiatior Lord David Frost and the European Commission’s Michel Barnier, Britain will continue to trade goods with the EU with zero tariffs or quotas.
The full text of the agreement is set out in a 1,200-page trade pact which was signed by Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, in Brussels yesterday morning before being flown to London on an RAF jet.
Mr Johnson subsequently put his signature to the hard in copy in Downing Street before opening the Commons debate on his deal, urging an end to the ‘rancour and recrimination’ that have soured political life in recent years.
He said decades of tensions with the EU had been ‘resolved’ so Britain can be its closest friend, a free-trading power, and a ‘liberal, outward-looking force for good’. He suggested far from trade being hit by leaving the single market and customs union it should mean ‘even more’ business being done.
‘Having taken back control of our money, our borders, our laws and our waters by leaving the European Union on January 31, we now seize this moment to forge a fantastic new relationship with our European neighbours based on free trade and friendly co-operation,’ Mr Johnson said.
‘At the heart of this Bill is one of the biggest free trade agreements in the world.’
A rare photo of the PM emerging from the division lobby was captured, showing him wearing a mask behind the Speaker’s chair before going back into the Commons chamber to hear the result.
The passage of the deal through the Commons was seen as a formality thanks to the PM’s 80-seat majority and the fact Sir Keir told Labour MPs they had to vote for it.
However, the Labour leader suffered a major rebellion as 36 Labour MPs, including former shadow Cabinet ministers Diane Abbott and Barry Gardiner, defied their leader’s instruction and chose to abstain.
Only one Labour MP voted against the deal, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, while former Labour leader and now independent MP Jeremy Corbyn abstained. Some 162 Labour MPs voted for the deal along with 359 Tories.
Two junior members of the Labour frontbench, Helen Hayes and Tonia Antoniazzi, quit their roles after they abstained.
In a tough message to would-be mutineers, Sir Keir had said: ‘Those that vote ”no” are voting for No Deal.’
Boris Johnson hailed a ‘new chapter’ for the UK after Brexit today as his trade deal is crashed through Parliament
A smiling EU commission chief Ursula von der Leyen (left) and EU council president Charles Michel signed the pact in Brussels
Ms von der Leyen and Mr Michel signed the trade deal on a provisional basis, with the European Parliament due to give approval next year
Moment PM enters Commons chamber to watch his Brexit trade deal win approval
This is the moment Boris Johnson marched into the House of Commons chamber to watch his historic Brexit trade deal win approval from MPs.
The rare behind-the-scenes photo shows the PM emerging from the division lobbies, where MPs vote with their feet, behind the Speaker’s chair.
The Prime Minister crashed through all five stages of the 80-page EU (Future Relationship) Bill in one day to meet the December 31 11pm deadline when the UK leaves the transition period.
Most MPs took part in the day of debates virtually, although a few headed to Westminster to make contributions from the Commons green benches.
Sanitising stations and floor markings have been erected on the parliamentary estate.
Mr Johnson opened the debate this morning before the Speaker heard from backbenchers, including ex-PM Theresa May.
With Labour backing the deal, the bill sailed through the Commons by 521 to 73, a majority of 448.
Ex-PM Theresa May had delivered a stinging attack saying her agreement with the EU – repeatedly rejected by the House in 2019 before she was evicted from No10 – had been ‘better’ as she berated Sir Keir for failing to support it.
The agreement’s passage was assured with Tory Eurosceptics – who lavished praise on Mr Johnson, saying Churchill and Thatcher would be ‘proud’ – fully on board.
Veteran Sir Bill Cash said: ‘Like Alexander the Great, Boris has cut the Gordian Knot.’
Mark Francois, one of the self-styled Spartans who held out against Theresa May’s Brexit withdrawal agreement, said they could now ‘lower our spears’.
Urging MPs to back the accord struck on Christmas Eve, Mr Johnson claimed it resolves ‘the old and vexed question of Britain’s political relations with Europe, which bedevilled our post-war history’.
The PM said: ‘We have done this in less than a year, in the teeth of a pandemic, and we have pressed ahead with this task, resisting all calls for delay, precisely because creating certainty about our future provides the best chance of beating Covid and bouncing back even more strongly next year.’
Mr Johnson went on: ‘We will now open a new chapter in our national story, striking free trade deals around the world, adding to the agreements with 63 countries we have already achieved, and reasserting Global Britain as a liberal, outward-looking force for good.
‘Those of us who campaigned for Britain to leave the EU never sought a rupture with our closest neighbours.
‘We would never wish to rupture ourselves from fellow democracies beneath whose soil lie British war graves in tranquil cemeteries, often tended by local schoolchildren, testament to our shared struggle for freedom and everything we cherish in common.
‘What we sought was not a rupture but a resolution, a resolution of the old and vexed question of Britain’s political relations with Europe, which bedevilled our post-War history.’
Despite warnings that there will be more friction in trade due to breaking free from EU rules, Mr Johnson said the deal ‘if anything should allow companies to do even more business with our European friends, safeguarding millions of jobs and livelihoods in UK and across the continent’.
‘In less than 48 hours, we will leave the EU single market and the customs union, as we promised,’ he said.
Mr Johnson said for the first time since 1973 the UK would be an independent coastal nation, stressing that in five and a half years’ time after another transition Britain will have full control of its waters. ‘Of course we would have liked to have done this more quickly,’ he admitted.
Sir Keir urged his benches to support the historic trade pact, saying the argument is ‘over’ and the issue must not dominate the next general election.
From work to pensions, passports and pets, what Britain’s new Brexit deal with the EU means for you
By John Stevens, deputy political editor for the Daily Mail
Working
UK citizens no longer have an automatic right to live and work in the EU. The ability to do so depends on each country’s immigration rules. Professional qualifications may no longer be recognised. Citizens of the UK and Ireland can continue to live, work and move freely between the two countries.
Passports
Existing EU burgundy passports remain valid but UK travellers will not be able to use fast track e-gates at EU airports or Eurostar. Britons visiting most EU countries and Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, should have at least six months left on their passport when travelling. It should also be less than ten years old on the day of travel.
Travel
Visits to EU countries will be limited to no more than 90 days in any 180. From January 2022, Britons will have to pay a visa-waiver for EU travel – approximately £6 per head. These will last for three years.
Duty free
There will be a tax-free limit of £390 on goods brought back from the EU. For drink and cigarettes, the limits are 42 litres of beer; 18 litres of wine; nine litres of sparkling wine; four litres of spirits; and 200 cigarettes.
Driving
Most can continue to drive in the EU without the need to get an International Driving Permit. Those with an older paper licence may need one. Drivers taking their own car to the continent will need a ‘green card’ from their insurer. There may be a fee.
Health insurance
The EHIC – European Health Insurance Card – scheme is to end although cards remain valid until their expiry dates. The Government says it will bring in a similar global health insurance card.
Education
UK will no longer participate in the Erasmus scheme, which allows students to study at European institutions for a year during their degree. A global ‘Turing Scheme’ will replace it from September 2021.
Pets
The EU pet passport scheme is ending and owners will need to get an animal health certificate instead. The cost is likely to be around £100, with a new one for each trip.
Postal services
Sending goods to the EU will require a customs declaration, available from the Post Office. Britons receiving goods from the EU may have to pay duty, VAT and handling fees.
Retiring to the EU
A visa and proof of financial independence will now be needed. The UK state pension will still be paid.
Northern Ireland
Its citizens may escape some rules as the province is considered part of the European Union in certain circumstances.
RICHARD KAY: NOW will they stop wailing? They were the insufferable refuseniks horrified by a democratic referendum (because they lost) who battled to thwart it. Now, before we sail into a brave new tomorrow, a fond salute to Brexit’s bitter losers
Tonight Britain will leave the European Union for good, as the demands of the 2016 referendum are finally met.
Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister, holding a sign saying I Voted Remain
Ever since that historic result, there have been four and a half years of relentlessly bitter rancour between opposing sides, and in the process reputations were made and lost.
So, more than 1,600 days after the vote, who are the real winners and, significantly, biggest losers of the Brexit deal?
TONY BLAIR, PETER MANDELSON & ALASTAIR CAMPBELL: Labour’s three unwise men and Remainer Ultras who thought they could take support for their beloved Europe for granted without realising how much they were hated by both Tory and Labour voters.
KATYA ADLER: The Beeb’s multi-lingual Europe Editor whose doom-laden reports for the BBC, that’s the Brussels Broadcasting Corporation, will not be missed.
EMMANUEL MACRON: France’s pint-sized president never missed an opportunity to mock Britain’s post-Brexit hopes.
SIR KEIR STARMER: Flip-flopping and endless U-turns have seen the Labour leader jeered for having more positions on Brexit than the Kama Sutra.
THERESA MAY: Forever haunted by her ‘Brexit means Brexit’ soundbite, the former PM was graceful enough to vote for her successor’s deal — but not without lambasting it as inferior to her (rejected) one.
Members of Parliament gather near the Commons Speaker John Bercow, right
DAVID CAMERON: Might have gone down in history for agreeing to the EU referendum but then petulantly walked away when his ‘side’ lost and is now reduced to little more than a footnote.
JAMES O’BRIEN: The shrill LBC presenter with a serious case of Brexit derangement syndrome who did as much as anyone to paint EU Leavers as ignorant and thick.
NICOLA STURGEON: Scotland’s First Minister would have shrieked betrayal whatever happened. But her case for independence gets harder: why demand an end to rule from London only to replace it by subservience to Brussels?
IAN BLACKFORD: The SNP’s gloomster-in-chief who single-handedly lives up to PG Wodehouse’s biting aphorism that ‘it is never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine’.
Steve Coogan addresses anti-Brexit campaigners in Parliament Square, London, March 2019
TWITTER: Its Remainiac user base has finally come to terms with the fact that their social media feed is not the same thing as the real world.
RESTAURATEURS of Strasbourg & Brussels: They are mourning the loss of some of the hungriest — and thirstiest — Eurocrats on their gravy train.
FINANCIAL TIMES, THE ECONOMIST & GUARDIAN: House publications of the metropolitan chattering classes all predicted doom and destruction if we voted Brexit and all showed how far removed and insulated they are from everyday life.
HUGH GRANT, STEVE COOGAN, BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH: The luvvies came out for Remain but couldn’t win over a population sick to death of being told how to vote by rich actors who think they’re as clever as the lines they recite.
JOHN HANNAH: The Four Weddings And A Funeral actor deserves special mention for his insults to ‘peasants and pensioners’ and other ‘idiots and racists’ who backed Brexit. Adding for good measure: ‘I hope you choke on your crap cheaps**t meat and extortionate U.S. drugs.’
Chuka Umunna and Hugh Grant (centre) with campaign volunteers before canvassing to encourage people to vote for Liberal Democrat Umunna as the Remain candidate. London December 2019
LADY HALE: Spider brooch-wearing Supreme Court judge who ruled the Government acted unlawfully by proroguing Parliament last year only to pave the way for Boris’s thumping election victory in December 2019.
GINA MILLER: Anti-Brexit activist who twice took the Government to court (see above) and whose tactical voting websites during last year’s election failed to persuade supporters to defeat the Tories and stop Brexit.
Gina Miller arrives at High Court for the decision on Brexit legal battle, March 2016
DOMINIC GRIEVE & ANNA SOUBRY: Tory turncoats who thought they were entitled to overturn the democratic wish of the British people.
JOHN BERCOW: Unlamented ex-Speaker, who used his high office to try to derail Brexit, and who remains the first Speaker in living memory not to receive a peerage.
JOHN MAJOR & LORD HESELTINE: EU has-beens from whom a prolonged period of silence is overdue. Analogue figures in a digital age.
LORD ADONIS: Diehard Remainer who, despite losing the argument, never concedes. Now says the best policy for the UK is to ‘rejoin’ the EU. Oh, please!
LORD KERSLAKE: The former head of the Civil Service, a cross-bench peer who took up an advisory role to former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, stoked the anti-Brexit rhetoric with claims that officials were planning for ‘riots in the street’ in the event of no deal. It earned him a rebuke for exaggeration from Radio 4’s John Humphrys.
JO SWINSON: Who she? The former Lib Dem leader who promised her party would overturn Brexit only for her to be turned out of Parliament by contemptuous voters.
SIR ED DAVEY: Who he? Current Lib Dem leader (keep up) who followed narrow political point-scoring by voting against the EU trade bill yesterday.
BOB GELDOF: The self-obsessed former pop star who took to the Thames with metropolitan chums in a pleasure boat to sneer and give an expletive-loaded salute to fishermen at a Brexit protest outside Parliament. A low moment in a very dirty war.
A boat carrying supporters for the Remain in the EU campaign including Singer, Bob Geldof (centre), on the River Thames, London, June 2016
DAME HILARY MANTEL: Historical novelist who labelled Brexit a ‘unique national folly’ and described Britain’s retreat into insularity as ‘really ugly’.
PHILIP PULLMAN: The His Dark Materials author plumbed absurd depths with his claim that the Government ‘should be arraigned on conspiracy to murder charges’ if it found Brexit negotiations had hindered the procurement of PPE to fight the coronavirus.
DELIA SMITH: The cookery writer and Norwich FC owner who admitted that she had never accepted the referendum result and helped fund a fleet of coaches to transport ‘people’s vote’ protesters to London.
SIR RICHARD BRANSON: From claims that a hard Brexit would be more damaging than World War II to dire warnings about the collapse of the Pound, the billionaire businessman kept up a never-ending stream of Project Fear scare stories about Britain’s post EU future.
MICHEL BARNIER: For such an outwardly smooth and suave figure, Barnier was increasingly rattled as the talks dragged on. Convinced by the purity of the EU position, he was eventually sidelined by Ursula von der Leyen, the pragmatic president of the European Commission.
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon arrives to vote in the EU referendum, at Broomhouse Community Hall in Glasgow, Scotland on June 23, 2016
DONALD TUSK: Failed to change his tune even after standing down as European Council president, declaring that Brexit was ‘one of the most spectacular mistakes’ in the history of the EU.
JEAN-CLAUDE JUNCKER: Former EU Commissioner and arch-federalist, who had to deny claims he had a drink problem, may have unwittingly come up with the best description on the interminable Brexit wrangling: ‘A waste of time and energy.’
GUY VERHOFSTADT: The one-time chairman of the Brexit steering group in the European Parliament could not resist sticking his three-penn’orth into the agreement by calling the end of Britain’s involvement in the EU’s Erasmus scheme for students ‘tragic and spiteful’.
…and the ones who will still be whooping
LORD BOTHAM: The England cricketing legend urged Britain to ‘stand proud’ by voting to leave, accusing the EU of ‘greed and corruption’. The bulldog-spirited sportsman was raised to the peerage by a grateful Boris Johnson.
SIR GEOFFREY BOYCOTT: Botham’s fellow cricketer’s defence of Brexit was hailed by TV presenter Piers Morgan as one of the ‘greatest mission’ statements since the days of Churchill.
SIR MICHAEL CAINE: The veteran Hollywood star was unequivocal: ‘You cannot be dictated to by thousands of faceless civil servants [in Brussels].’
NIGEL FARAGE: There would have been no Brexit without him. A peerage or knighthood surely beckons.
LORD (Daniel) HANNAN: The highly intelligent former MEP who has been banging on about the evils of Europe for longer even than Farage and campaigned for voters to ‘please sack me’ by voting Leave.
LAST NIGHT OF THE PROMS: No more waving of EU flags instead of the Union Flag.
NUMBER PLATE MAKERS: At last we can see the back of the deeply infuriating Euro flag on registration plates. And motorists can proudly apply a GB sticker when driving in the EU.
LORD FROST: When the dust has settled much of the success of our trade deal will be thanks to UK’s chief EU negotiator David Frost. Unlike his predecessor Olly Robbins, an ardent Europhile, Frosty, a career diplomat, was a hardline Eurosceptic.
BORIS JOHNSON: He promised to get Brexit done and now he has. His personal intervention drove the deal over the line and now he can focus on other matters: defeating Covid, saving the union with Scotland and marrying fiancee Carrie.
ALICE GRANT: Tartan mini-skirt-wearing Alice, and her sister Beatrice, added glamour and youth to the Brexit cause. The privately-educated granddaughter of a former Bank of Scotland governor, declares: ‘Brexit was never about big money markets or economics. It was about self-determination, love for our nation and real change for our forgotten communities.’
LIZ HURLEY: In 2016 hers were the only genuine vital statistics in the referendum campaign. Her endorsement for Brexit may not have clinched the result, but that picture of her wearing nothing but stilettos and a Union Flag cushion put Remain’s gloomy luvvies with their hatred of a self-sufficient Britain in the shade.
PASSPORT MAKERS: In production (in Poland) since March, demand for the new blue British passport will soar.
DEMOCRACY: The people spoke at the 2016 referendum and the 2019 election — and today they’ve finally got what they voted for.
