Politics

The UK has begun a new relationship with the European Union with the Brexit transition period coming to an end. Despite leaving the EU on 31 January last year, the UK has remained subject to the bloc’s rules as a member of the single market and customs union. However, this ended at 11pm and the

The education secretary has told Sky News he is “absolutely confident” that secondary schools will be able to carry out mass testing with an extra week to prepare. Defending the decision to push back the return of pupils to secondary schools and colleges, Gavin Williamson told Sky News the move was about “rooting out coronavirus

Boris Johnson has said the UK’s destiny “now resides firmly in our hands” as his Brexit trade deal cleared Parliament and entered into law. It comes after MPs overwhelmingly approved the deal to pave the way for the UK-EU agreement to come into force at 11pm today, when the current Brexit transition period – during

Boris Johnson has hailed the “astonishing speed” with which the UK-EU trade deal was agreed and says the agreement “demonstrates how Britain can be at once European and sovereign”. It comes as MPs debate the deal ahead of a vote which could see the agreement ratified by parliament by the end of the day. If approved,

Boris Johnson will claim the Brexit trade deal agreed on Christmas Eve represents “not a rupture but a resolution” of relations between the UK and Europe, as he urges MPs to back the legislation that will put it into law. The government intends to pass the EU Future Relationship Bill through parliament at break-neck speed

The post-Brexit trade deal between the EU and UK has brought “a little stability” but there are still some elements of the bloc’s future relationship with Britain to determine, Brussels’ chief negotiator has said. Michel Barnier, who led trade negotiations with the UK on behalf of the EU, told French radio on Tuesday his team

The military is being called in to help secondary schools and colleges with coronavirus testing at the start of the spring term. Some 1,500 personnel will give planning support, training and phone advice to English schools needing help with the testing process and setting up facilities. The government is pressing ahead with plans for primary

The government is pushing ahead with plans for primary school and older secondary school children to return to classrooms next week – although a senior minister admitted “we always keep things under review”. There have been calls for the return of pupils after the Christmas holidays to be delayed until later in January, in a

EU officials are set to meet on Monday to discuss the Brexit trade deal agreed with the UK on Christmas Eve. If the agreement, covering £660bn of trade, can be provisionally approved by EU ambassadors, it will then move on to formal ratification by the European Parliament. The Brexit agreement will almost certainly be passed

The Brexit trade deal agreed on Christmas Eve can be an “enormously unifying moment for our country”, the chancellor has said. Rishi Sunak said anyone who is worried about the economic implications of the breach with Brussels should be “enormously reassured about the comprehensive nature” of the agreement. The deal gives that reassurance, he said,

The home secretary has said the UK will continue to be one of the “safest countries in the world” despite being locked out of a key crime database from next year. Priti Patel said the EU and UK have “effective tools to tackle serious crime” going forwards. From July next year, the UK will start

Boris Johnson has appealed to hardline Eurosceptic Tory MPs to back his post-Brexit trade agreement in next week’s 11th-hour vote. The prime minister admitted “the devil is in the detail” of the more than 1,000-page treaty due to come into force from 1 January, but insisted it is “the right deal for the UK and

Plans are under way for the new post-Brexit trade deal to be implemented, as EU ambassadors praised the bloc’s “resilience” during negotiations. Brussels’ chief negotiator Michel Barnier updated representatives of all the 27 countries on Christmas Day after yesterday’s last-minute breakthrough. He arrived at the event in Brussels in a mask, carrying a hefty blue

Boris Johnson has said the Brexit trade agreement is his Christmas present to the country – serving as “the feast” after he promised an “oven ready deal”. The prime minister also used his Christmas message to say he believes the agreement will be the basis of a “happy and successful” relationship with the EU. Speaking

A long-awaited trade deal between the UK and the EU has been struck just days before the deadline. The treaty will apply from 1 January 2021 and take over from the existing arrangements under the transition period, which has seen the UK continue to follow most EU rules since Brexit day to limit disruption to

Brexit talks have continued through the night as hopes were raised that a trade deal could finally be on the brink of being agreed. Sources in London and Brussels told Sky News on Wednesday evening that an agreement could be close. Eric Mamer, the chief spokesman for the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen,

Talks between the UK and EU on a post-Brexit trade deal are in the “end phase”, an EU official has told Sky News. With both sides trying to reach an agreement before the end of the transition period next week, sources in London and Brussels have told Sky News that a Brexit deal could be

More areas could be moved into Tier 4 after Christmas given the “very worrying” new coronavirus variant, a cabinet minister has told Sky News. Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said the mutation “is very concentrated in London and the South East”, where full lockdown measures are already imposed. “We’ve now had time to think again about

More areas in England could be placed into Tier 4 restrictions – equivalent to a lockdown – as the variant COVID strain spreads across the country, the government’s chief scientific adviser has suggested. London and vast swathes of southeast England have already been put into tightened measures due to the high presence of the new

The post-Brexit transition period will not be extended, Downing Street says, despite growing calls for the deadline to be pushed back so the government can deal with spiking coronavirus cases and travel chaos. A growing list of countries are banning travel from the UK because of a new COVID-19 strain and France has gone one