EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel have signed the 1,246-page Trade and Cooperation Agreement this morning in Brussels, just days after it was clinched on Christmas Eve following months of hard-fought talks.
The hefty document was flown by the Royal Air Force to London for Prime Minister Boris Johnson to add his signature, as the UK parliament embarked on a rushed debate to clear the decks before a 31 December deadline.
The vote on the legislation to enact the post-Brexit trade agreement was passed by 521 to 73 votes in parliament's lower house during the afternoon.
Johnson told MPs that the agreement heralds "a new relationship between Britain and the EU as sovereign equals, joined by friendship, commerce, history, interests and values".
The British government only released the accompanying UK legislation on Tuesday afternoon -- less than 24 hours before a debate is to start in parliament an hour after the signing in Brussels.
🗣️ We welcome the fact that both sides managed to reach an agreement in principle, we pay tribute to the hard work of both parties' negotiating teams.
— Future Relationship with the EU Committee (@CommonsFREU) December 30, 2020
Read our report on the deal ‘The UK-EU future relationship: the Trade and Cooperation Agreement’: https://t.co/sqx1l0uHnc pic.twitter.com/Z0on6shZo4
The government rammed all stages of the 85-page European Union (Future Relationship) Bill through the Commons and the House of Lords in one day, before the EU trade deal takes effect at 11:00 pm GMT on Thursday.
At that hour -- midnight in Brussels -- the UK will be entirely out of the EU, following an 11-month transition period in place since Brexit took legal effect and more than four years after Britons voted to leave in a divisive referendum.
The agreement averted the prospect of a so-called "Hard Brexit" which would have seen quotas and tariffs slapped on all cross-Channel trade, exacerbating strains in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, which has hit Britain harder than most.
