Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s post-Brexit trade deal was approved by the UK Parliament less than 24 hours before the country’s final separation from the European Union.
The House of Lords gave the green light to the deal on Wednesday night, just a day before the UK left the EU’s single market, when the transition period ends at 11pm on Thursday.
Johnson thanked members of Parliament for supporting “historic” legislation, which turns the agreement he signed with the EU into British law.
“The fate of this great country is now firmly in our hands,” Johnson said in an emailed statement after the deal was approved. “We assume this duty with a purpose and with the interests of the British public at the heart of everything we do.”
The rush to reach agreement in Parliament in a single day puts an end to a four-year saga that dominated British politics and divided the country.
Since the vote in the referendum in June 2016, the turmoil surrounding Brexit has forced two prime ministers to resign, cloud the markets and see the UK’s relationship with its biggest trading partner radically redefined.
For Johnson, it is a personal achievement and also a political milestone. He was the face of the pro-Brexit campaign in 2016 and had more to lose politically from failing to deliver an orderly divorce.
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There are still risks for Johnson – and Britain – in the coming months and years, with new trade rules and cross-border goods checks that are likely to make the disruption inevitable. The question of how close or far the UK should be to the EU market is about to become a permanent feature of the British political debate.
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In the short term, however, the deal gives Johnson a domestic victory at a difficult time. Your government is fighting an resurgent coronavirus that has already inflicted the deepest recession in more than 300 years and now threatens to overwhelm healthcare.
Under the agreement, there will be zero-tariff and zero-quotas trade between Britain and the EU – but very limited provisions for service companies, which account for 80% of the UK economy.
The deal – signed on Christmas Eve – was signed on Wednesday by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel before being transported to London to be signed by Johnson.
As the clock moves towards the UK’s exit from the single market and customs union, the prime minister will be at his residence in Downing Street with his family, according to a statement by a government spokesman.
The moment will mark “a new beginning in the history of our country and a new relationship with the EU as its greatest ally”, said Johnson.