Boris Johnson says 'new chapter' will be delivered by Brexit Bill

ITV News Political Correspondent Carl Dinnen has more


Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pledged the UK will be a "friendly neighbour" to the European Union as he said the country is opening a "new chapter" in its national story.

Ahead of a vote by MPs on the last-minute Brexit Bill on Wednesday, the PM said the UK will work "hand in glove" with the EU when its values and interests coincide.

In a speech to the Commons, Mr Johnson is expected to tell the House of Commons that the central purpose of the legislation is to "accomplish something which the British people always knew in their hearts could be done, but which we were told was impossible".

Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen have been in regular contact. Credit: PA

He will say: "We have done this in less than a year, in the teeth of a pandemic, and we have pressed ahead with this task, resisting all calls for delay, precisely because creating certainty about our future provides the best chance of beating Covid and bouncing back even more strongly next year."

Mr Johnson will continue: "We will now open a new chapter in our national story, striking free trade deals around the world, adding to the agreements with 63 countries we have already achieved, and reasserting Global Britain as a liberal, outward-looking force for good.

"Those of us who campaigned for Britain to leave the EU never sought a rupture with our closest neighbours."


So what is and isn't in the deal?

Boris Johnson said the deal covers trade worth around £660 billion and that it is a "good deal for the whole of Europe", including:

  • Goods and components can be sold without tariffs and quotas in the EU market.

  • Will allow the share of fish in British waters that the UK can catch to rise from around half now to two-thirds by the end of the five-and-a-half year transition.

  • Allegations of unfair competition will be judged by an independent third-party arbitration panel with the possibility of a “proportionate” response.

  • On financial services, a vitally important sector to the UK, Mr Johnson conceded he had not got all he wanted.

  • The Erasmus student exchange programme will be replaced in the UK by a worldwide scheme named after code breaker Alan Turing.


His speech will continue: "We would never wish to rupture ourselves from fellow democracies beneath whose soil lie British war graves in tranquil cemeteries, often tended by local schoolchildren, testament to our shared struggle for freedom and everything we cherish in common.

"What we sought was not a rupture but a resolution, a resolution of the old and vexed question of Britain’s political relations with Europe, which bedevilled our post-War history."

He will conclude: "First we stood aloof, then we became a half-hearted, sometimes obstructive member of the EU.

"Now, with this Bill, we shall be a friendly neighbour, the best friend and ally the EU could have, working hand in glove whenever our values and interests coincide while fulfilling the sovereign wish of the British people to live under their own laws, made by their own elected Parliament.

"That is the historic resolution delivered by this Bill."

Johnson said European courts will no longer hold sway over British justice. Credit: PA

The European Union (Future Relationship) Bill is expected to pass, despite the SNP, Plaid Cymru, the DUP, the SDLP, Alliance and the Liberal Democrats all indicating that they will not support it.

Sir Keir Starmer has urged his MPs to vote for the deal - despite concerns that it will fail to protect many key economic sectors.

The Labour leader is facing a backbench revolt over his decision to back Boris Johnson's EU trade deal.