LONDON – Just before 3 pm on Wednesday, British lawmakers voted to ratify the Brexit trade agreement with the European Union, bringing a symbolic end to a debate that separated the country for more than four years.
Minutes later, Health Secretary Matt Hancock stood up in Parliament to announce that the government would place three quarters of England’s population in the strictest level of confinement as a new variant of the coronavirus spreads across the country. The government also delayed the reopening of secondary schools in January.
It was a dizzying day of contrasts in Britain on Wednesday – a country propelling itself towards a post-Brexit future, even as it remained in the grip of a pandemic that recently entered a frightening new phase, rejoicing with a newly authorized British-made vaccine while running to vaccinate its people against the virus.
The 521-to-73 vote came after a day of hasty and unique debate, just one day before the agreement was due to enter into force. As soon as the House of Commons approved the deal, attention turned to increasingly desperate attempts to contain the virus. Even in the pandemic, however, the news was mixed.
Earlier on Wednesday, British regulators approved a second vaccine, developed in laboratories at the University of Oxford and manufactured by AstraZeneca, which, according to officials, gave hope for an end to the plague of infections. Hancock hailed him as a valuable example of British scientific achievement, but warned that he would not spare the country several more difficult weeks before doses became widely available.
“Today is a day of mixed emotions,” said Hancock, underestimating the head-turning events that happened hourly.
For Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the penultimate day of 2020 represented a year of endless turbulence. It all started in January with Britain’s formal departure from the European Union – a moment of triumph for a leader who won an overwhelming electoral victory by promising to “make Brexit end” – but quickly went into crisis, as Johnson repeatedly changed his attitude to the coronavirus after being hospitalized, himself.
The decision to postpone the reopening of most secondary schools and colleges in England for two weeks, until January 18, represented yet another reversal, as the government promised to keep schools open regardless of what else closed. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said most primary schools would open on January 4.
Public health experts have generally supported government action, although some have said that schools should either be closed completely or postponed for two weeks to reassess the trajectory of infections, which have increased since the emergence of a more rapidly transmitted variant last month. virus.
“The numbers are very high right now,” said Devi Sridhar, head of the global public health program at the University of Edinburgh.
Britain reported 50,023 new cases on Wednesday and 981 deaths, the highest number since April. In all, the country recorded 72,548 deaths from the virus, the highest number in Europe.
The government estimated that 60 percent of the new cases were of the variant, which spread to other European countries and was detected this week in Colorado. The sudden increase in cases has altered the government’s plan to keep schools open as mass distribution of vaccines began.
The new rules will greatly expand, starting on Thursday, areas of England under the highest level of restrictions, Tier 4, closing non-essential deals, banning family mixing and telling people they should generally stay at home. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which set their own rules, have similar limits in place.
Speaking at a news conference later in the day, Johnson balanced his enthusiasm for the new vaccine, which he considered emblematic of an entrepreneurial post-Brexit Britain, with a sober recognition that the country remains in deep crisis. He refused to rule out further changes in schools, which had been, until now, one of the only areas where the government has stood firm for several months.
“My emotions, I suppose, are a mixture of frustration and optimism, which equates to relentless determination,” said Johnson.
It was a stark contrast to the confident prime minister who opened the debate on the trade agreement in the morning, extolling it as a way to “regain control of our money, our borders, our laws and our waters”.
“Now we take advantage of this moment,” he said, “to forge a new and fantastic relationship with our European neighbors, based on free trade and friendly cooperation.”
Despite the lack of time for scrutiny, the ease with which the deal was passed in Parliament was a departure from the many tough votes taken before last year’s election, when the House of Commons was paralyzed because of Brexit.
Conservative lawmakers, including a bench of hard-core Brexit supporters, have joined Johnson. His success in disarming his party’s Brexiteer bangs was noteworthy, as divisions over the European Union have troubled the party for decades and Britain has made substantial concessions to Brussels in the negotiations.
William Cash, a conservative lawmaker who spent his career opposing European integration, described the deal as a “real turning point in our history” and said that Johnson “saved our democracy”.
Even the opposition Labor Party ordered its lawmakers to support the agreement on the grounds that it was better than nothing, although more than 30 refused to vote for an agreement that creates new barriers to trade with European nations.
Critics note that Johnson’s deal guarantees little for Britain’s service sector and means more bureaucracy for British companies that export to continental Europe, which will have to make millions of additional customs declarations.
Former Prime Minister Theresa May noted that lawmakers have spent months rejecting all previous attempts to broker a trade agreement with the European Union. On Wednesday, lawmakers approved within hours a deal that, according to May, was not as good as the proposals made last year by his government.
Still, Johnson achieved his political goal by increasing the country’s ability to exercise its sovereignty and to make decisions without being restricted by European Union institutions, such as the Court of Justice.
Some pointed to the rapid approval of the AstraZeneca vaccine, as well as the Pfizer vaccine, a few weeks ago, as a testament to this new freedom, although Britain gave these approvals while still complying with EU rules. These rules allow all member states to approve vaccines before the bloc’s health regulator during a pandemic, but only Britain has done so.
Britain, analysts said, would have felt more pressure not to move ahead of the European Union if it were still a member.
The trade agreement is not without criticism. Fisheries workers accused Johnson of capitulating to the European Union on fishing rights. Business leaders are concerned about the bureaucratic burdens resulting from the deal and the fact that it does little for the service sector, which represents about four-fifths of the British economy.
Johnson, however, rejected suggestions that the new arrangements would cause headaches for British companies.
“From the point of view of UK exporters, for example, they will now have the advantage that they will have only one set of forms to fill out for export to the entire world,” he said in an interview with the BBC, masking the fact that millions of new customs forms that were not required while Britain was part of the European trade bloc will have to be filled out.
Brexit opponents, Johnson said, often warn that Britain cannot deviate from European Union rules and still negotiate freely with the bloc – in other words, it could not have its cake and eat it too.
“It turned out not to be true,” said the prime minister. “I want you to see that this is a cakist treaty.”