Brexit: The UK is finally leaving the European Union

Years of political turmoil reached a new low in Great Britain this week with the resignation of Prime Minister Liz Truss after the shortest tenure in British history.

Confidence in Truss had collapsed after she presented a budget proposal featuring the UK’s largest tax cuts in 50 years, mainly benefiting the wealthy and corporations. Financial markets reacted with shock to the plan — which commentators dubbed “regressive” and “badly designed” — sending the pound plunging and steeply increasing the costs of government borrowing.

Well, would you look at that: Brexit talks are still on.

Last week, the United Kingdom and the European Union set a Sunday deadline to negotiate the terms of their future relationship. Sunday didn’t bring a deal. But it offered — maybe — some small glimmers that the UK and the EU might just be able to reach a pact by the true deadline of December 31.

Another Brexit deadline has come and gone. Well, sort of.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had set October 15 as the date for the United Kingdom to reach a trade agreement with the European Union. That self-imposed deadline arrived on Thursday, with both sides still at an impasse over their future relationship.

Brexit is probably not at the top of anyone’s mind in the middle of a historic pandemic, but both Europe and the United Kingdom are agreeing it’s time to start talking about it again.

The United Kingdom officially exited the European Union in January, but the divorce was far from finalized.

The breakup is official: On January 31, 2020, at 11 pm local time (6 pm ET), the United Kingdom left the European Union.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave a brief address ahead of the big moment, where he struck an optimistic note about Britain’s future outside of the EU.

A countdown clock, projected onto the prime minister’s residence at 10 Downing Street, marked the final minutes of the United Kingdom’s membership in the European Union on January 31, 2020. As the clock ticked toward 11 pm, one half of the country celebrated. The other half mourned.

The story of Britain’s breakup with the European Union began long before 52 percent of voters on a June 2016 referendum decided to leave the bloc. And though the UK will officially rescinded its EU membership Friday, the drawn-out and arduous divorce is far from over. Brexit will enter a new phase, as the UK and EU work to figure out all the details of their future relationship: trade, financial services, security cooperation, and much more.

Brexit is finally, officially happening — for real this time.

The United Kingdom has passed the legislation to make the current Brexit deal with the European Union official UK law, paving the way for the country’s exit from the EU on January 31.

Megxit might be getting more attention than Brexit this week (also some other things), but there’s actually some Brexit news happening: The United Kingdom just came one step closer to leaving the European Union at the end of January.

On Thursday, the UK House of Commons easily approved the legislation needed to codify the Brexit deal into UK law, voting 330 to 231. The bill will now go to the House of Lords, Parliament’s other chamber, where it will also be voted on, and officially become law later this month.

Queen Elizabeth gave her annual Christmas Day queen’s speech yesterday, preaching a message of reconciliation and unity in the wake of the UK’s years-long debate over Brexit — and possibly hinting at her own views about Brexit with her fashion choices, if internet sleuths are to be believed.

The annual Christmas speech is a traditional address delivered by the monarch. In this year’s edition, prerecorded at Buckingham Palace and broadcast nationwide, Queen Elizabeth summarized 2019 as “quite bumpy.” She highlighted the birth of her eighth grandchild and also talked about her husband, 98-year-old Prince Phillip, who earlier this week was released from the hospital where he spent four days for “observation and treatment in relation to a pre-existing condition.”

Boris Johnson is set to win a majority in Parliament, securing his position as UK prime minister. His victory is a near-guarantee the United Kingdom will leave the European Union at the end of January.

It’s a triumph for the 55-year-old Conservative member of Parliament, former foreign minister, and former mayor of London. An ardent backer of Brexit, Johnson has a reputation for brashness, bending the truth, and bad hair, which has earned him comparisons to President Donald Trump (who is a fan of his).

Jeremy Corbyn was never expected to be the leader of the UK Labour Party, until he was. He was never expected to last in the role, until he did. He was never expected to seriously challenge Theresa May and the Conservative Party in the 2017 election, until he did.

And he is never expected to be prime minister of the United Kingdom.

The United Kingdom will officially leave the European Union on January 31, 2020 at 11 p.m. — and it will do so with a deal, now that the UK and the EU have approved it. Brexit isn’t over, though. It just enters a much more difficult phase, where both the UK and the EU must decide on the terms of their future relationship. For Vox’s continuing coverage, follow here.

Original story is below:

The United Kingdom will now try to break the Brexit deadlock with a general election.

A day after Brexit was delayed a third time, the UK Parliament voted on Tuesday to hold an election on December 12 — a little more than a month before the new Brexit deadline of January 31, 2020.

Brexit — a portmanteau for “British exit” — has generated a lot of very specific lingo.

And those terms to describe and define the United Kingdom’s breakup with the European Union can sometimes make this already complicated process even harder to follow.

It’s time to revise the calendars, yet again: It looks like the new Brexit deadline will be January 31, 2020.

Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, said Monday that EU leaders had agreed to the United Kingdom’s request for a “flextension” until the end of January. The “flextension” gives the UK the option to depart the EU earlier — on December 1 or January 1 — if the UK Parliament can ratify the new Brexit deal and generally just make a decision on Brexit.

The UK Parliament advanced Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit legislation on Tuesday, putting the United Kingdom one step closer to (finally) exiting the European Union.

Members of Parliament (MPs) voted, 329 to 299, for the Brexit bill — the legislation that will implement the Brexit deal into UK domestic law — in its “second reading,” in which MPs express their support for the main principles of the bill.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson just secured a Brexit victory — only to suffer another crushing defeat. That’s just how things go in UK politics these days.

Earlier on Tuesday, the UK Parliament voted to advance Johnson’s Brexit bill, the legislation that will put his Brexit deal into UK domestic law.

Fans of parliamentary government have long touted the notion that the British political system could — at least in theory — never get deadlocked in quite the same way as the American system, in which executive and legislative deadlock has become something of a signature feature.

But this week, the story looks different, as the United Kingdom is currently bogged down in an intractable deadlock between the executive and legislative branches of government over how to approach the looming deadline for Brexit.

The UK Parliament has voted to block a no-deal Brexit, an attempt to prevent Prime Minister Boris Johnson from pulling the country out of the European Union without a plan in place.

Members of Parliament pushed the vote through Wednesday, a day after Parliament seized control to do exactly this.

Who had “proroguing Parliament” on their Brexit bingo card?

On Wednesday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked Queen Elizabeth II to suspend — otherwise known as “prorogue” — Parliament until October 14, in what very much looked like an attempt to prevent members of Parliament (MPs) from blocking a no-deal Brexit before the October 31 deadline.

Update: Johnson has won the race to be the next Conservative leader, and is expected to become prime minister on July 24. Here’s what you need to know — and what (maybe) comes next for Brexit.

Boris Johnson’s day has finally come.

And then there were two.

Conservative members of Parliament (MPs) in the UK have finished voting, and they’ve chosen the two finalists to replace outgoing British Prime Minister Theresa May: Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt.

Brexit has finally brought down Theresa May.

The British prime minister announced Friday that she plans to resign, after trying — and failing — to steer the United Kingdom through its divorce with the European Union. While this brings a close to her beleaguered premiership, it adds even more chaos to UK politics as the country tries to finalize its exit from the EU.

British Prime Minister Theresa May offered a “new” Brexit plan Tuesday, in a last-ditch effort to get her still-unpopular Brexit deal approved.

But May largely failed to deliver on the “new” part. Instead, she outlined a 10-point strategy that repeated compromises or plans she’s previously offered. The prime minister did offer a few notable concessions, specifically a vote on a second referendum and a vote on a type of post-Brexit customs arrangement with the EU.

Police in Northern Ireland are still investigating the death of 29-year-old journalist Lyra McKee, who was shot Thursday during a police riot in Derry, also known as Londonderry.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland arrested a 57-year-old woman on Tuesday in connection to the McKee’s killing, but police later said she was released “unconditionally.”