The deadline for the UK to pass a deal to leave the European Union, as the two-year period from invoking Article 50 expires. The move is a result of the EU Referendum in 2016.
Brexit: Your simple guide to the UK leaving the EU
Feeling a little lost on Brexit? Never really got your head around it in the first place? Let us walk you through it.
What is Brexit?
Brexit is short for “British exit” – and is the word people use to talk about the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union (EU).
What is the EU?
The EU is a political and economic union of 28 countries which trade with each other and allow citizens to move easily between the countries to live and work (click here if you want to see the full list).
The UK joined the EU, then known as the EEC (European Economic Community), in 1973.
Why is the UK leaving?
A public vote – called a referendum – was held on Thursday 23 June 2016 when voters were asked just one question – whether the UK should leave or remain in the European Union.
The Leave side won by nearly 52% to 48% – 17.4m votes to 16.1m – but the exit didn’t happen straight away.
It was due to take place on 29 March 2019 – but the EU agreed to postpone this date. (We will explain in more detail below).
What has happened so far?
The 2016 vote was just the start. Since then, negotiations have been taking place between the UK and the other EU countries.
The discussions have been mainly over the “divorce” deal, which sets out exactly how the UK leaves – not what will happen afterwards.
This deal is known as the Withdrawal Agreement.
What does the Withdrawal Agreement say?
The Withdrawal Agreement covers some of these key points:
- How much money the UK will have to pay the EU in order to break the partnership – that’s about £39bn
- What will happen to UK citizens living elsewhere in the EU, and equally, what will happen to EU citizens living in the UK
- How to avoid the return of a physical border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland when it becomes the frontier between the UK and the EU
A length of time, called the transition period, has been agreed to allow the UK and EU to agree a trade deal and to give businesses the time to adjust.
That means that if the withdrawal agreement gets the green light, there will be no huge changes between the date of Brexit and 31 December 2020.
Another, much shorter, document has also been drawn up that gives an overview of what the UK and EU’s future relationship will be in the longer term.
This is the political declaration. However, neither side has to stick exactly to what it says – it is a set of ambitions for future talks.
The deal was agreed by the UK and the EU in November 2018, but it also has to be approved by British MPs.
Have MPs backed the Withdrawal Agreement?
Well, no. They have voted against it three times.
On 15 January they rejected the deal by 432 votes to 202 – a record defeat.
Then on 12 March, after Theresa May had gone back to the EU to secure further legal assurances, they rejected it again.
And on 29 March – the original day that the UK was due to leave the EU – MPs rejected it for a third time (this vote was slightly different as it did not include the political declaration).
The UK was meant to leave on 29 March – why didn’t it?
As MPs did not approve Theresa May’s deal in a Commons vote in March, the PM was forced to go to Brussels to seek a delay to Brexit.
The EU agreed to delay the withdrawal date until 22 May, if MPs approved her deal in a new vote.
As they didn’t (on 29 March), the UK missed that deadline.
The UK now has to tell the EU what it wants to do next by 12 April – or that will be Brexit day.
Theresa May says she’s going back to the EU to ask for another extension, but that it will be a “short” one.
If there was going to be a lengthy extension, the UK would need to take part in elections for the European Parliament.
The current default position – ie, if nothing changes – is for the UK to leave without a deal on 12 April.
So what happens now?
Theresa May says she wants to “break the logjam”.
She held talks with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on 3 April, which No 10 said were “constructive” and agreed a “programme of work” to try to find a way forward.
Mr Corbyn described the meeting as “useful, but inconclusive”, and said talks would continue.
If the two leaders agree on a new plan, they’ll put it to a vote by MPs before 10 April. The EU is holding an emergency meeting that same day.
If Mrs May and Mr Corbyn don’t agree on a single way forward, then there could be a number of options put to MPs to work out what to do.
Why do people oppose the deal?
There are a broad range of complaints, many of which claim the deal fails to give back to the UK control of its own affairs from the EU.
One of the biggest sticking points has been over what happens at the Irish border.
Both the EU and UK want to avoid the return of guard posts and checks (here’s why), so something called the backstop – a sort of safety net – was included in the deal.
What is the backstop?
The backstop is meant to be a last resort to keep an open border on the island of Ireland – whatever happens in the Brexit negotiations.
It would mean that Northern Ireland, but not the rest of the UK, would still follow some EU rules on things such as food products.
The prime minister insists that if all goes as planned it will never be used.
But it has annoyed some MPs, who are angry that the UK would not be able to end it without the EU’s permission and so EU rules could remain in place for good.
Other MPs would prefer the UK to stay closer to the EU – or even still, in it.
And others say Northern Ireland should not be treated separately from the rest of the UK.
On 11 March, Mrs May and the EU released a statement, giving added legal reassurances that the backstop plan, if it ever needed to be used, would only be temporary.
Mrs May hoped the statement would persuade her MPs to vote for her deal, but it was still rejected.
So could Brexit actually not happen at all?
It is written into law that the UK will be leaving on 12 April.
The European Court of Justice has said the UK could cancel Brexit altogether without the agreement of other nations, but politically, that’s not likely to happen.
What happens if the UK leaves without a deal?
“No deal” means the UK would have failed to agree a withdrawal agreement.
That would mean there would be no transition period after the UK leaves, and EU laws would stop applying to the UK immediately (more on that here).
The government says it is preparing for this potential situation.
It expects some food prices could rise and checks at customs could cost businesses billions of pounds. (Read the government’s report here).
It has published a series of guides – which cover everything from mobile roaming on holiday to the impact on electricity supplies.
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