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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Brexit (disambiguation).

Part of a series of articles on

Brexit

Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union

Glossary of terms
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Background

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2016 EU referendum

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Notice of withdrawal

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Negotiations

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Withdrawal agreement

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Legislation

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Impact

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EU–UK relations

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Opposition

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Timeline

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Part of a series of articles on

UK membership
of the European Union
(1973–2020)
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Accession

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1975 referendum

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Treaty amendments

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MEPs for UK constituencies

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Officials and bodies

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Issues and events

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Withdrawal
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The United Kingdom in orange; the European Union (27 member states) in blue: a representation of the
result of Brexit

Brexit (/ˈbrɛksɪt, ˈbrɛɡzɪt/;[1] portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of

the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31
January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).[note 1] The UK is the only sovereign
country to have left the EU. The UK had been a member state of the EU or its
predecessor the European Communities (EC), sometimes of both at the same time,
since 1 January 1973. Following Brexit, EU law and the Court of Justice of the
European Union no longer have primacy over British laws. The European Union
(Withdrawal) Act 2018 retains relevant EU law as domestic law, which the UK can
now amend or repeal.
The EU and its institutions developed gradually since their establishment.
Throughout the period of British membership, Eurosceptic groups had existed,
opposing aspects of the EU and its predecessors. Labour prime minister Harold
Wilson's pro-EC government held a referendum on continued EC membership in
1975, in which 67.2 per cent of those voting chose to stay within the bloc. Despite
growing political opposition to further European integration aimed at "ever closer
union" between 1975 and 2016, notably from Margaret Thatcher in the late 1980s
and 1990s, and factions of the Conservative Party in the 2000s, no further
referendums on the issue were held.
By the 2010s, the growing popularity of UKIP, as well as pressure
from Eurosceptics in the Conservative Party, forced then-Prime Minister David
Cameron to promise a referendum on British membership of the EU if his
government was re-elected. Following the general election in 2015, which produced
a small but unexpected overall majority for the governing Conservative Party, the
promised referendum on continued EU membership was held on 23 June 2016.
Notable supporters of the Remain campaign included then-Prime Minister David
Cameron, future Prime Ministers Theresa May and Liz Truss, and former Prime
Ministers John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown; while notable supporters of
the Leave campaign included future Prime Ministers Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak.
The electorate voted to leave the EU with a 51.9% share of the vote, with all regions
of England and Wales except London voting in favour of Brexit,
and Scotland and Northern Ireland voting against. The result led
to Cameron's sudden resignation, his replacement by then-Home Secretary Theresa
May, and four years of negotiations with the EU on the terms of departure and on
future relations, completed under a Boris Johnson government, with government
control remaining with the Conservative Party in this period.
The negotiation process was both politically challenging and deeply divisive within
the UK, leading to two snap elections in 2017 and 2019. One deal was
overwhelmingly rejected by the UK Parliament, causing great uncertainty and
leading to postponement of the withdrawal date to avoid a no-deal Brexit. The UK left
the EU on 31 January 2020 after a withdrawal deal was passed by Parliament but
continued to participate in many EU institutions (including the single market and
customs union) during an eleven-month transition period in order to ensure
frictionless trade until all details of the post-Brexit relationship were agreed and
implemented. Trade deal negotiations continued within days of the scheduled end of
the transition period and the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement was signed
on 30 December 2020.
The effects of Brexit will in part be determined by the cooperation agreement,
which provisionally applied from 1 January 2021, and formally came into force on 1
May 2021.[2] The broad consensus among economists is that it is likely to harm the
UK's economy and reduce its real per capita income in the long term.[3][4][5][6][7] It is likely
to produce a large decline in immigration from countries in the European Economic
Area (EEA) to the UK,[8] and create problems for British higher education and
academic research.[9]

Timeline[edit]
Main article: Timeline of Brexit
Following a UK-wide referendum on 23 June 2016, in which 51.89 per cent voted in
favour of leaving the EU and 48.11 per cent voted to remain a member, Prime
Minister David Cameron resigned. On 29 March 2017, the new British
government led by Theresa May formally notified the EU of the country's intention to
withdraw, beginning the process of Brexit negotiations. The withdrawal, originally
scheduled for 29 March 2019, was delayed by the deadlock in the British
parliament after the June 2017 general election, which resulted in a hung
parliament in which the Conservatives lost their majority but remained the largest
party. This deadlock led to three extensions of the UK's Article 50 process.
The deadlock was resolved after a subsequent general election was held in
December 2019. In that election, Conservatives who campaigned in support of a
"revised" withdrawal agreement led by Boris Johnson won an overall majority of 80
seats. After the December 2019 election, the British parliament finally ratified
the withdrawal agreement with the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act
2020. The UK left the EU at the end of 31 January 2020 CET (11 p.m. GMT). This
began a transition period that ended on 31 December 2020 CET (11 p.m. GMT),
during which the UK and EU negotiated their future relationship. [10] During the
transition, the UK remained subject to EU law and remained part of the European
Union Customs Union and the European Single Market. However, it was no longer
part of the EU's political bodies or institutions.[11][12]
The withdrawal had been advocated by hard Eurosceptics and opposed by pro-
Europeanists and soft Eurosceptics, with both sides of the argument spanning the
political spectrum. In 1973, the UK joined the European Communities (EC) –
principally the European Economic Community (EEC) – and its continued
membership was endorsed in the 1975 membership referendum. In the 1970s and
1980s, withdrawal from the EC was advocated mainly by the political left, e.g. in
the Labour Party's 1983 election manifesto. The 1992 Maastricht Treaty, which
founded the EU, was ratified by the British parliament in 1993 but was not put to a
referendum. The Eurosceptic wing of the Conservative Party led a rebellion over the
ratification of the treaty and, with the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and the cross-
party People's Pledge campaign, then led a collective campaign, particularly after
the Treaty of Lisbon was also ratified by the European Union (Amendment) Act
2008 without being put to a referendum following a previous promise to hold a
referendum on ratifying the abandoned European Constitution, which was never
held. After promising to hold a second membership referendum if his government
was elected, Conservative prime minister David Cameron held this referendum in
2016. Cameron, who had campaigned to remain, resigned after the result and was
succeeded by Theresa May.
On 29 March 2017, the British government formally began the withdrawal process by
invoking Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union with permission from
Parliament. May called a snap general election in June 2017, which resulted in a
Conservative minority government supported by the Democratic Unionist
Party (DUP). UK–EU withdrawal negotiations began later that month. The UK
negotiated to leave the EU customs union and single market. This resulted in the
November 2018 withdrawal agreement, but the British parliament voted against
ratifying it three times. The Labour Party wanted any agreement to maintain a
customs union, while many Conservatives opposed the agreement's financial
settlement, as well as the "Irish backstop" designed to prevent border controls
between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The Liberal
Democrats, Scottish National Party (SNP), and others sought to reverse Brexit
through a proposed second referendum.
On 14 March 2019, the British parliament voted for May to ask the EU to delay Brexit
until June, and then later October.[13] Having failed to get her agreement approved,
May resigned as Prime Minister in July and was succeeded by Boris Johnson. He
sought to replace parts of the agreement and vowed to leave the EU by the new
deadline. On 17 October 2019, the British government and the EU agreed on a
revised withdrawal agreement, with new arrangements for Northern Ireland. [14]
[15]
 Parliament approved the agreement for further scrutiny, but rejected passing it into
law before the 31 October deadline, and forced the government (through the "Benn
Act") to ask for a third Brexit delay. An early general election was then held on 12
December. The Conservatives won a large majority in that election, with Johnson
declaring that the UK would leave the EU in early 2020. [16] The withdrawal agreement
was ratified by the UK on 23 January and by the EU on 30 January; it came into
force on 31 January 2020.[17][18][19]