As Brexit finally happens, Britons mark their moment of freedom while obeying stay-at-home orders William Booth, Michael Birnbaum, Karla Adam © Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images Police officers patrol the Embankment opposite the London Eye in a near-deserted London on New Year’s Eve, Dec. 31, 2020, as authorities in the city hope the message to stay at home is obeyed. LONDON After years of buildup to Brexit, a drama that obsessed and divided a nation, Britain left the European Union on Thursday night, not with a bang but with a recorded New Year s Eve light show on the BBC. With a newly emergent, highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus surging, even the most zealous Brexiteers marked the launch of “Global Britain” while tucked safely indoors, under the government’s “Tier 4” stay-at-home orders, which now apply to 75 percent of the population of England, alongside tough measures in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Brexit ends Britons right to live, work in EU
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MIL-OSI UK: Statement to Parliament: Prime Minister s opening statement to the House of Commons on the UK-EU deal: 30 December 2020
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U.K. Parliament Approves Post-Brexit Trade Deal
After the House of Commons overwhelmingly endorsed the 1,200-page agreement, the House of Lords also voted in favor of British ratification.
The agreement passed easily, in contrast to many knife-edge votes held before last year’s general election when Parliament was gridlocked over Brexit.Credit.Mary Turner for The New York Times
Published Dec. 30, 2020Updated Dec. 31, 2020
LONDON Approval of a trade deal between Britain and the European Union was hurried through the British Parliament in just a day on Wednesday, a decisive but rushed conclusion to a long Brexit story that has divided Britons and convulsed their politics for more than four years.
Brexit Trade Deal Approved by UK House of Commons
British MPs on Wednesday voted to approve the UK–EU agreement on post-Brexit trade and cooperation, which is set to come into effect on Jan. 1 when the UK exits the EU’s single market and customs union at the end of the Brexit transition period.
The House of Commons approved the EU (Future Relationship) Bill by 521 votes to 73. The bill will now be debated and voted on in the House of Lords, whose support is also needed before it becomes law.
Once passed, the bill will enable the UK government to ratify the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreements reached on Christmas Eve.