Final hurdles to Brexit clear

EU leaders signed their post-Brexit trade deal with Britain and dispatched it to London on an RAF jet yesterday, setting their seal on a drawn-out divorce just hours before the UK brings its half-century European experiment to an end. 

EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, the heads of the European Commission and European Council, smiled at a brief televised ceremony to put their names to the 1,246-page Trade and Cooperation Agreement.

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"It has been a long road. It's time now to put Brexit behind us. Our future is made in Europe," von der Leyen said

Britain will leave the European single market and customs union at 11:00pm (2300 GMT) on Thursday, the end of a difficult year and of a post-Brexit transition period marked by intense and tortuous trade negotiations.

But first the hefty document will be flown by the Royal Air Force to London for Prime Minister Boris Johnson to add his signature, as the UK parliament began a rushed debate to clear the decks before the looming deadline.

Introducing the legislation to ratify the deal, Johnson told lawmakers it heralded "a new relationship between Britain and the EU as sovereign equals, joined by friendship, commerce, history, interests and values".

"With this bill we are going to be a friendly neighbour, the best friend and ally the EU could have," he said.

Johnson's government only published the accompanying UK legislation on Tuesday afternoon -- less than 24 hours before the debate is to start in parliament and an hour after the signing in Brussels.

The government intends to ram all stages of the 85-page European Union (Future Relationship) Bill through the Commons and the House of Lords in one day.

The agreement averted the prospect of a cliff-edge separation 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.

A faction of arch-Brexiteers in Johnson's ruling Conservatives gave their blessing to the EU agreement on Tuesday, and the main opposition Labour party signalled its reluctant backing, ensuring the legislation will pass.