UK MPs have voted to pass PM Boris Johnson’s amended EU Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB), which sets the stage for an almost-certain Brexit on January 31 — and prevents any extension of the transition period beyond December 2020.
A previous version of the bill said that the post-Brexit transition period could be prolonged by mutual agreement for up to two years, but with Johnson’s Conservative Party now commanding such a large post-election majority in the House of Commons, that concession to the anti-Brexit opposition could be removed.
The bill was passed comfortably by 358 to 234 votes.
The Labour Party did not support the bill, with leader Jeremy Corbyn describing it as a “battering ram” to drive Britain down a path toward “more deregulation” and a “toxic” trade deal with the Trump administration.
The government also removed clauses from the bill which had promised alignment with the EU on workers’ rights, saying that they would be protected and “enhanced” under a domestic employment bill.
Parliament will now break for Christmas and the Brexit bill will return on January 7 when MPs will debate it for another week before voting again and passing the legislation into the House of Lords.
If all goes according to Johnson’s plan, the UK will legally leave the European Union on January 31, after which point trade negotiations between London and Brussels will begin.
