Joy of Brexit: EU & Brits strike deal

After months of hesitation, stop-and-start negotiations and resignations, Britain and the European Union on Sunday finally sealed an agreement governing the UK’s departure from the bloc next year.

And yet that may have been the easy part.

British Prime Minister Theresa May must now sell the deal to her divided Parliament — a huge task considering the intense opposition from pro-Brexit and pro-EU lawmakers alike — to ensure Britain can leave with a minimum of upheaval on March 29.

It’s a hard sell. Sunday’s agreement leaves Britain outside the Belgium-based EU with no say, but still subject to its rules and the obligations of membership at least until the end of 2020. Britons voted to leave in June 2016, largely over concerns about immigration and losing sovereignty to Brussels.

EU leaders were quick to warn that no better offer is available.

“I am totally convinced this is the only deal possi- ble,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said. “Those who think that by rejecting the deal that they would have a better deal will be disappointed the first seconds after the rejection.”

For once, May was in complete agreement.

“This is the deal that is on the table,” she said. “It is the best possible deal. It is the only deal.”

May vowed that “one of the most significant votes that Parliament has held for many years” will be conducted by Christmas.