Boris Johnson has praised the “unprecedented” Brexit deal that UK and EU negotiators have today reached, just eight days before the transition period was due to end. Speaking at a press conference, the PM praised those responsible for the agreement, as well as the UK’s “promising” future.
“We will be an independent coastal state with full control of our waters,” Mr Johnson said, before adding excitedly that Britain is now a “truly independent nation”.
It follows statements given by EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and former chief negotiator Michel Barnier earlier on Thursday, in which they confirmed a deal had been reached and that it is now time “to leave Brexit behind us”.
The eleventh-hour agreement, which only emerged after a litany of missed deadlines, represents the largest trade deal ever signed by either side, retaining existing zero-tariff zero-quota arrangements on imports and exports totalling around £668bn a year. It also averts the so-called “Australian exit” which would have seen Britain trading on WTO terms with tariffs and quotas applied to its imports and exports.
