Boris Johnson has described the signing as “a fantastic moment” which would bring an end to more than three years of “argument and division” since the referendum vote to leave the EU in 2016.
The step forward in the path towards Brexit came as the PM faced challenges on the domestic front - being urged to scrap HS2 by a group of 13 Tory MPs while his business secretary Andrea Leadsom met with the family of Harry Dunn to discuss the ongoing effort to bring Anne Sacoolas back to the UK to face justice.
Meanwhile the passing of Good Friday architect and former Stormont deputy first minister Seamus Mallon prompted tributes from across the political spectrum. Tony Blair, who worked with him to bring peace to Northern Ireland, said he was "Brave, blunt...someone deeply respected and admired across the troubled landscape of Irish politics"
And in Labour leadership contest news, Len McClusky's union Unite expressed its support for Rebecca Long-Bailey to succeed Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader.
Here are all of the day's events as they happened:
Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of events at Westminster and beyond.
EU chiefs sign withdrawal agreement for UK’s exit
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president Charles Michel have signed the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, the council has said.
It follows the Queen granting royal assent to the legislation for Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal on Thursday.
The European Parliament is expected to vote to ratify the agreement on January 29 ahead of Britain’s departure from the EU on January 31.
It will mark the start of an 11-month transition period, during which the UK will continue to follow EU rules, before the final break with Brussels at the end of the year.
Priti Patel urged to lower threshold for migrant workers
Industry bodies representing hundreds of thousands of businesses across the whole UK economy have written to home secretary Priti Patel to call for a deep cut in the proposed £30,000 minimum salary threshold for migrant workers after Brexit.
The CBI, British Chambers of Commerce, Federation of Small Businesses, Institute of Directors, Make UK and other groups urged Patel to ensure that new immigration rules do not deny them “access to the labour and skills needed to support the economy”.
A threshold of £20,100 would be high enough to protect wages of home-grown workers, they said.
The signatories appealed for flexibility to recruit workers below any salary threshold on the basis of their skills, an extension from one to two years in temporary working visas and a “radically reformed” sponsorship process to reduce the cost and complexity of hiring from overseas.
Our political editor Andrew Woodcock has more details.
Industry bodies representing thousands of businesses call on Priti Patel to lower minimum wage for migrant workers
New system must not undermine economy by denying firms access to staff they need, letter warnsTory revolt over HS2: ‘We can't go on throwing money at this project’
HS2 is over budget and behind schedule because its risks were under-estimated, according to a damning report by the Whitehall spending watchdog.
The National Audit Office (NAO) said phase one – London to Birmingham – could be “poor value” by delivering only 80p of benefits for every £1 spent. But, overall, the completed line to the north of England may deliver £1.40 of benefits for every £1 spent.
The spending watchdog reckons the government “misjudged the complexity” of the whole thing, and warned that it is impossible to “estimate with certainty what the final cost could be”.
Is the ambitious rail project now in real jeopardy?
A group of 13 Tory MPs have posted a video posted on YouTube demanding Boris Johnson scraps HS2 and spend the money on improving other transport links.
Tory MP Victoria Prentis, chair of the HS2 Review Group of MPs, described the NAO report as “incredibly damning” and urged the PM to think again.
She said: “I do hope this puts more pressure on the Government to act. We can’t go on throwing money and resources at this project.”
Labour MP Andy McDonald, shadow transport secretary, said the report showed the Tory government’s handling of the project had been “disastrous and incompetent”.
HS2 is over budget and behind schedule, says new report
‘By not fully and openly recognising the programme’s risks from the outset, DfT and HS2 Ltd have not adequately managed risks to taxpayer money,’ says NAO reportNick Clegg tells chancellor to delay tech tax
Facebook communications chief Sir Nick Clegg has urged chancellor Sajid Javid to delay plans to impose a digital tax on US tech giants.
The former deputy PM did not rule out the proposals being used as a bargaining chip in transatlantic post-Brexit trade negotiations and urged the UK to pause the plans to work towards an international solution.
Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme if he supports the US making the tax an issue in trade talks, Sir Nick said: “No-one wants to see trade wars but equally no-one wants to see what is, in the end, not a sustainable solution, which is a lot of patchwork set at different levels in different ways.
“I totally understand the political significance which is attached to this because people want to see big global companies like Facebook pay their fair share, but actually the solution the Treasury has come up with compared to total tax intake for the Treasury is very, very small indeed.
“I would simply throw the question back and say to Sajid Javid ‘Look, you’re not giving anything up by just saying you want to give the international talks more time to succeed’.”
He also said he was “very confident” that Jeff Bezos wasn’t hacked via Whatsapp.
UK has financed £6bn of fossil fuel projects since 2010
The government is pumping billions of pounds into overseas fossil fuel projects that could emit up to 69 million tonnes of greenhouses gases every year, an investigation has found.
Earlier this week, Boris Johnson announced an end of financial support for countries with coal mining and coal-fuelled power stations – but activists called on the PM to also stop UK funding of overseas gas and oil energy projects.
A probe led by Greenpeace’s investigations unit discovered UKEF has financed £6bn of fossil fuel projects around the world since 2010.
More details here:
Labour hustings cancelled, as Keir Starmer takes time out
Saturday’s Labour leadership hustings in Leeds has been cancelled – as the frontrunner Keir Starmer’s team announced he will do no events over the weekend.
He paused his campaign on Thursday after his mother-in-law was in a serious accident and was admitted to hospital in intensive care.
A spokesperson for Starmer said: “Further to yesterday’s statement, Keir will be cancelling all campaign events this weekend. We ask that his family’s privacy is respected at this time.”
Next bit of Brexit ‘most difficult phase’, says Iain Duncan Smith
It’s taken us three years to finalise only a rough outline on the terms of our exit from the European Union.
But the government now hopes supposed to agree free trade deals with two major power blocs – the US and the EU – in just 11 months.
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith has admitted how difficult it’s going to be, and fears the impact of the UK not have a say in the European Council.
The Brexiteer told talkRADIO: “This next phase is in many senses going to be, I think, the most difficult phase of all.”
“We have now moved outside officially, but in this period … we are subject to European law but we have no vote on that at all in the Council … if the EU wants to, wants to try and be awkward and difficult, they could impose laws on us which we have no say over.
“It’s going to be tough, so for all those negotiations you’re still going to have this running around in parliament as debates are on about whether we’ve been too weak or not strong enough – it’s still going to go on.”
Dominic Raab condemns ‘denial of justice’ after US refuses Dunn suspect return
Foreign secretary Dominic Raab has said the government is disappointed about the US decision not to extradite Harry Dunn crash suspect Anne Sacoolas to the UK.
The minister said the rejection “amounts to a denial of justice”.
The teenager died when his motorbike crashed into a car outside RAF Croughton in August last year. Sacoolas, 42, claimed diplomatic immunity following the crash and was able to return to her home country, sparking an international controversy.
The 19-year-old's parents Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn were informed of Mike Pompeo’s decision to refuse the request in a phone call with their constituency MP, Andrea Leadsom, on Thursday.
In a statement, Raab said: “I called the US ambassador earlier to express the government’s disappointment about this decision.
“We feel this amounts to a denial of justice, and we believe Anne Sacoolas should return to the UK. We are now urgently considering our options.
“I also explained that the UK would have acted differently if this had been a UK diplomat serving in the US.
“I emphasised that work to improve road safety on and around the Croughton base must continue, and the need to resolve the issue whereby family members at RAF Croughton are immune from criminal prosecution.”
Labour MEP vows to vote against Brexit agreement
Seb Dance has called the signing of the Brexit withdrawal agreement in Brussels “the saddest moment in my political career”.
The Labour MEP tweeted: “The WA will pass the EP of course b/c the member states want this agreement. But I cannot and will not support something I know to be an historic mistake for the UK and the EU.
“My very last vote shall be against Brexit.”
Rebecca Long-Bailey: ‘I’m not a millionaire’
Labour leadership candidate Rebecca Long-Bailey has shared her latest campaign video.
“I know you’re devastated we lost the election,” she tells prospective supporters. “I am too.”
She adds: “I wasn’t born to be a politician. I’m not a millionaire, and I grew up far away from the circus of Westminster.”
In the only real criticism of the Corbyn era, Long-Bailey admits “we had nothing to say about power” at the last election. “Labour, the true party of the people, lost their trust. I’ll make you a promise – I’ll never let that happen again.”
Tory minister ‘deeply sorry’ extradition refused in Dunn case
The business secretary Andrea Leadsom, MP for the Dunn family’s constituency, has also now called on Anne Sacoolas to return from the US to Britain, posting a “justice for Harry” message on Twitter.
It follows foreign secretary Dominic Raab expressing his disappointment about the US decision not to extradite Harry Dunn crash suspect to the UK.
Health secretary chairs emergency meeting on coronavirus outbreak
Matt Hancock is to chair a meeting of the government’s Cobra civil contingencies committee at noon today to discuss the coronavirus outbreak, Downing Street has announced.
Representatives of Public Health England and the government departments for transport, local government and education, the Home Office and Foreign Office will also attend the meeting in the Cabinet Office on Whitehall, said a No 10 spokesman.
“There remain no confirmed cases and we are well prepared for any new diseases,” said the spokesman.
Fourteen people have been tested for the virus in the UK, with five confirmed negative and nine still awaiting results, Public Health England (PHE) said on Thursday night.
Labour MEP vows not to vote for Brexit deal
Another Labour MEP has pledged not to vote for the withdrawal agreement when it comes before the European parliament next week.
Rory Palmer said Brexit was “a historic mistake for my country” and called this morning’s signing by EU leaders a “sad moment”.
EU draws map for Boris Johnson of where customs checks he says don’t exist will go
The European Commission has produced a map of where it expects Britain to apply internal customs checks between different parts of the UK, under Boris Johnson’s Brexit withdrawal agreement.
The prime minister has repeatedly denied that his withdrawal agreement includes customs checks between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but his claim is contradicted by the actual contents of the deal.
EU trade chief Sabine Weyand said that “now that the Withdrawal Agreement has been signed” the EU was was publishing a guide to the deal, “including now the protocol on Northern Ireland will work”.
'Unsustainable': Speaker calls for ban on a new appointments to House of Lords
A moratorium on the appointment of new peers to the House of Lords should be introduced urgently to combat its excessive size, according to the speaker of the upper chamber.
Norman Fowler’s intervention comes as both Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson prepare to nominate new peers in the Lords as part of the dissolution honours list – taking the total size of the chamber way beyond 800 members.
It is already one of the largest legislative bodies in the world, surpassed only by the Chinese National People’s Congress, and calls have already been made to remove “passengers” who fail to contribute to debates.
Chief medical officer at Cobra meeting
Downing Street say that chief medical officer Chris Whitty is attending the Cobra meeting on the coronavirus outbreak this lunchtime.
A Downing Street spokesman said the Department for Education was being represented at today’s meeting because large numbers of Chinese students were expected to return to UK universities over the coming period after visiting their home country for Chinese New Year celebrations.
The No 10 spokesman said: “We are keeping our response under constant review. We remain in close contact with the World Health Organisation and international partners including China and we are ready to take further action if needed.”
UK will face ‘consequences’ after Brexit, says German finance minister
Germany’s finance minister has said he is confident his country will not suffer from Brexit – but warned that the UK will inevitably face “consequences” from its decision to leave the EU.
At a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Olaf Scholz said Britain’s financial sector will not be as important to the EU after Brexit as it is now.
Scholz said a non-member cannot have the same advantages as an EU member and that will be an important factor in upcoming trade discussions between the EU and Britain.
“That is something that will have to be balanced,” he said. “I think we will have solutions but, sure, there cannot be a special competitive advantage from being outside.”
UK ‘top of the list’ for trade deal, says Trump’s treasury secretary
US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin has been talking about Brexit and trade deals in Davos, appearing on a panel alongside Christine Lagarde, the president of the European Central Bank.
“On the UK, the president has been clear, going back to the election, that the UK is our number one ally and will be at the top of the list of trade agreements,” said the Trump administration official.
He reiterated the hope to get the deal done in 2020, and said “conversations” had started between Washington and Brussels for new US-EU trade arrangements too.
Will Boris Johnson back down over tax on US tech giants?
Commentators have been discussing a US-UK trade deal, and the growing tension over the government’s planned digital services tax on Silicon Valley companies like Facebook.
“There’s no point taking back control from Brussels if you are going to be told by president Trump what taxes you are going to raise,” said The Times’ Rachel Sylvester.
She said getting a trade deal with the US would be “difficult” over the next year – given rows over the tech tax, Iran and Huawei’s involvement in Britain’s 5G network.
“However much [Trump] like Boris Johnson personally he’s not going to do him any favours,” Sylvester added.
