It’s just the beginning
PM’s pledge as he signs deal to break free from EU
BORIS Johnson signed the deal that will allow Britain to break free of the EU last night, declaring it was ‘not the end but a new beginning’.
The Prime Minister put pen to the Brexit trade agreement in Downing Street after it was flown by an RAF plane from Brussels.
As he marked the historic moment, Mr Johnson said: ‘I want everybody to understand that the treaty that I’ve just signed is not the end, it is a new beginning.
‘I think the beginning of what will be a wonderful relationship between the UK and our friends and partners in the European Union.’
Hours earlier, EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel had added their signatures to the deal agreed on Christmas Eve at the end of nine months of negotiations.
Britain will finally break free from the EU at 11pm tonight after MPs voted overwhelmingly to put the agreement into law by 521 votes to 73.
The Lords was expected to follow suit last night as the Government rushed the approval through Parliament in a single day. The Queen was due to give royal assent at around midnight.
As he spoke in the Commons yesterday, Mr Johnson said he hoped it would end the ‘old, desiccated, tired, super-masticated arguments’ that have dogged the country for years and enable it to move forwards to a ‘new and great future’.
Tory Eurosceptics were jubilant, declaring that the ‘battle for Brexit’ had finally been won.
Veteran MP Sir Bill Cash said: ‘Churchill and Margaret Thatcher would have been deeply proud.’ Tory Europhiles also rallied around, with
‘Churchill and Thatcher would have been proud’
all the party’s MPs voting for the deal save archBrexiteers Owen Paterson and Sir John Redwood, who abstained.
Former prime minister Theresa May welcomed the agreement, but cautioned that it did not do enough for the City and financial services.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said that while the agreement was thin with many flaws, the alternative was to leave the EU single market and customs union with no agreement, pushing up prices and driving businesses to the wall.
But he faced embarrassment as almost a fifth of his 200 MPs defied his order to vote for the deal – 36 abstained while one voted against.
Some MPs criticised the lack of time they had been given to examine the deal, with the Commons debate shorter than five hours.
Tory Damian Green, a former Cabinet minister, said: ‘Today is a triumph for the Government, a triumph for the Prime Minister, but not a triumph for Parliament as this degree of scrutiny is clearly pretty laughable.’
Wrapping up the debate, Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said the deal leaves the UK ‘as sovereign equals with the EU’.
‘Democracy is why we are here. More people in the 2016 referendum voted to leave the European Union than have ever voted for any proposition in our history,’ he told MPs.
‘And now, four-and-a-half years later, we can say that we have kept faith with the people. This deal takes back control of our laws, our borders and our waters and it also guarantees tariff-free and quota-free access to the European market.’
THERE may have been no thunderous drum rolls, grandiose blasting of trumpets or fireworks lighting up the sky. But then there didn’t need to be. To all those who saw it, this was clearly a moment to relish.
No one present was in any doubt that they were witnessing history. And not even a reduced Chamber – no more than 65 MPs in attendance by my count – could dilute its potency.
It fell to the Government’s chief whip Mark Spencer to do the honours. At 2.40pm, this cheery, barrel-chested Nottinghamshire farmer approached the Speaker and with a respectful nod toward the chair, announced that the ayes had it.
The Government’s EU trade bill had passed by 521 votes to 73. The final piece in the jumbo-sized jigsaw we call Brexit had at last been slotted into place.
On the front bench, Boris Johnson turned and shot his backbench colleagues a toothy, self- satisfied smile. Seconds later, he heaved himself up onto those great ham hocks and made a head-down charge toward the exit.
His destination: back to No 10 to sign our freshly minted EU trade deal. It had arrived in London only that afternoon via an RAF plane that touched down at London City Airport before it was hightailed forthwith over to Downing Street.
A smiling EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen had signed it in Brussels earlier in the day. The ink on her signature can barely have dried.
As the PM planted his schoolboy squiggle across the page, his grey-whiskered ambassador to the EU, Sir Tim Barrow, stood beaming. A proud father watching his first-born sign the marriage register. Boris grinned and no wonder. The argument was finally over. Ladies and gentlemen, fellow citizens, it is official: We. Are. Out.
The Prime Minister had opened the debate shortly before 10am. He urged the House to seize the moment to forge a ‘fantastic new relationship with our European neighbours’ which would open a ‘new chapter in our national story’.
It was a dignified performance. The PM, perhaps, was wary of triumphalism.
Predictably the SNP sought to make a nuisance of themselves. Their Commons leader Ian Blackford tried to prevent Boris gaining any momentum with a series of childish points of order. Up and down he bopped from his seat like a fairground target. Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle urged him to grow up. It was clear we were in for a long morning.
L ABOUR’S Sir Keir Starmer was terse and touchy. He looked like a man whose house had been repossessed. He tried to appear gracious but couldn’t manage it. He was backing the deal begrudgingly, explaining ‘a thin deal is better than no deal’.
Theresa May stood. Brrr! For some reason the air always turns thinner when the former PM is on her feet.
She spent the session sitting directly behind Boris wearing a mask and furiously crossing out bits of her speech. Or possibly she was tweaking her Ocado
order. Mrs May taunted Starmer for not voting for her ‘better deal’. By ‘better’ she presumably meant ‘less like Brexit’. She described Boris’s deal as ‘disappointing’. Oh dear. I sense unprocessed anger there.
Mr Blackford threw himself into a lengthy whinge, preaching his usual sermon of doom across the glens.
Beside him, his chief whip Patrick Grady kept hopping about as though a herd of red ants had marched into his smalls.
Father of the House Sir Peter Bottomley (Con, Worthing W) accused Blackford of being a ‘far more cheerful’ character than his speech suggested. Blackford chuckled merrily. What a phoney he is. For nearly five hours, members picked apart the bill. How extraordinary it was to witness all those Brussels cheerleaders who had had done their utmost to overturn the referendum now backing the bill.
Dame Margaret Beckett (Lab, Derby S) sporting a pair of Thora Hird specs, said it was ‘Hobson’s choice’ but would be walking through the aye lobby. As would Hilary Benn (Lab, Leeds C). Poor Hilary. You’d think someone had asked him to drown the family puppy in the bath.
Diane Abbott (Lab, Hackney N) was in no mood to join the collaborators. She derided the deal as ‘shoddy’. No doubt Diane had spent the festive break meticulously perusing the entire 1,200-page document with a fine-tooth comb.
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey self-importantly announced he too would not be voting for this ‘bad deal’. I’m not sure this was quite the cat-among-the-pigeons moment Sir Ed seemed to think it was.
The ERG Tory diehards, by contrast, clucked like prized geese. Sir Bill Cash compared Boris to Greek general Pericles.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith concurred, referring to the PM as the ‘honourable member for Athens’.
There was a slightly dotty contribution from Mark Francois (Con, Rayleigh and Wickford) who announced it was time for he and his fellow Spartans to ‘put away their spears’. It’s possible little Francois’ ERG colleagues don’t find his colourful interventions altogether helpful.
The only class turn came from Michael Gove who produced a zinger of a closing argument. Shooting those theatrical eyebrows hither and thither, he landed some teasing jabs on Starmer and Nicola Sturgeon. Mr Gove had certainly had his Shredded Wheat that morning. He will have enjoyed yesterday as much as Boris.
After the result was announced, Sir Lindsay announced a three-minute break before the mother of all Parliaments quietly resumed its business.
Now MPs break again until the week after next. By which time we will have already embarked on a new, exciting episode in our nation’s history.