Queen Elizabeth Gives Royal Assent To Brexit

Queen Elizabeth II has given her assent to United Kingdom Prime Minister, Boris Johnson’s Brexit bill, thus enshrining the UK’s EU exit into law.

This was revealed by Deputy Speaker Nigel Evans in a short announcement on Thursday where he told the House of Commons that the Withdrawal Agreement Bill had received the Queen’s assent.

Johnson’s revised deal was finally approved by the Parliament on Wednesday night after more than three years of bitter disputes over when and if Brexit would happen.

The PM said the UK could now “move forward as one” and put “years of rancour and division behind us and focus on delivering a bright, exciting future – with better hospitals and schools, safer streets and opportunity spread to every corner of our country”.

The Brexit bill still needs to be ratified by the EU but is expected to do so in time for the UK to leave as planned at 11pm on January 31 while the consent vote in the EU Parliament will take place on January 29.

From 1 February, the UK will enter into an 11-month transition period in which it will continue to follow EU rules but without representation in the union’s institutions.

This arrangement will come to an end on 1 January 2021, by which point the two sides hope to have completed negotiations on their future economic and security partnership, at the heart of which the government believes will be an ambitious free trade deal.