This section deals with the initial negotiations from the referendum in June 2016 to 31 January 2020, when the UK officially left the EU.
It begins with Theresa May’s Lancaster House speech in February 2017: the first time that she publicly set out her view of what sort of Brexit she intended to follow. Before then her public utterances were limited to ‘Brexit means Brexit’.
The negotiations concluded with Boris Johnson’s Withdrawal Agreement and the Political Declaration of the principles for the future UK-EU relationship.
Please go to ‘transition period negotiations’ for the subsequent negotiation of the UK’s relationship with the EU.
- Phase 1 focused on principles for the Withdrawal Agreement (WA): citizens’ rights, the Irish border and the financial settlement
- Phase 2 finalised details of the WA and agreed the principles for the future UK-EU relationship
- Future relationship covered trade and other important areas like defence and security
- Theresa May’s Chequers White Paper proposed the basis for the UK-EU relationship, but proved divisive
- Key events:
- Commons rejected WA three times between 15 January and 29 March 2019
- On 11 April, EU and UK agreed Article 50 extension to 31 October to ratify WA
- 23 May, UK participated in EU elections
- 24 July, Boris Johnson became PM
- 28 August, Parliament prorogued from 10 September to 14 October
- 24 September, Supreme Court ruled prorogation unlawful & void
- 17 October, UK agreed revised WA/PD with EU
- 19 October, Parliamentary approval withheld until WA Act was passed
- 19 October, UK requested a third Article 50 extension to 31 January 2020
- 12 December 2019, at General Election, Conservatives won large parliamentary majority
- 23 January 2020, European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 passed
- 24 January 2020, Withdrawal Agreement signed by UK and EU
- 31 January 2020, UK left EU:
- Article 50 period ended
- Transition period began
- Transition period due to end on 31 December 2020 (but could be extended)