Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s post-Brexit trade deal was approved by the British 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 afternoon, just a day before the UK left the EU single market when the transition period expired at 11pm.
Johnson thanked members of Parliament for supporting “historic” legislation, which makes the agreement he signed with the EU into British law.
“The fate of this great country now lies firmly in our hands,” Johnson said in an emailed statement after the deal was approved. “We take on this duty with meaning and with the interests of the British public at the center of everything we do.”
The rush to reach an agreement through Parliament in a single day puts an end to a four-year saga that has taken British politics and divided the country.
Since the June 2016 referendum vote, unrest over Brexit has forced two prime ministers to do so he resigned, ravaged markets and saw the UK’s relationship with its largest trading partner radically redefined.
For Johnson, it is a personal achievement and a political milestone. He was the face of the pro-Brexit campaign in 2016 and had the most to lose politically due to the lack of orderly divorce.
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There are still risks for Johnson – and for Britain – in the coming months and years, with new trade rules and border controls crossing goods that are likely to make disruption inevitable. The question of how close or distant the UK should be to the EU market will become a permanent feature of the British political debate.
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In the short term, however, the deal gives Johnson a national victory at a difficult time. His government is fighting one a resurgent coronavirus that has already caused the deepest recession in more than 300 years and is now threatening to overwhelm the health service.
Under the agreement, there will be zero-rate and zero-share trade in goods between Britain and the EU, but very limited provisions for service companies, which account for 80% of the UK economy.
The deal, reached on Christmas Eve, was signed on Wednesday by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel before being taken to London to be inked by Johnson.
As the clock coincides with the UK’s exit from the single market and customs union, the prime minister will be at his Downing Street residence with his family, according to a statement from 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,” Johnson said.