The UK lawmakers have overwhelmingly approved the post-Brexit trade deal with the EU in a parliamentary vote.
A bill bringing the deal into UK law was backed by the Commons by 521 to 73 votes after Parliament was recalled, the BBC reported.
The majority of Labour MPs are thought to have voted for the agreement after leader Sir Keir Starmer said a “thin deal was better than no deal”, according to the report.
Britain will leave the European single market and customs union at 11 p.m. (2300 GMT) on Thursday, the end of a difficult year and of a post-Brexit transition period marked by intense and tortuous trade negotiations. Also, this is happening four and a half years after the Brexit referendum.
The agreement hammered out with Brussels over nine months sets out a new business and security relationship between the UK and its biggest trading partner.
The European Union (EU) leaders formally signed the post-Brexit trade deal with Britain early on Wednesday.
EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, the heads of the European Commission and European Council, smiled at a brief televised ceremony to put their names to the 1,246-page Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
Taking to Twitter, Leyen confirmed that she and European Council President Charles Michel “signed the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement” in Brussels.
“(UK) Prime Minister Boris Johnson will sign it later today in London,” she said.
“It has been a long road. It’s time now to put Brexit behind us. Our future is made in Europe,” von der Leyen added.
The free trade deal is the biggest bilateral trade deal signed by either side, covering trade worth around 668 billion pounds ($905 billion).
The UK is the EU’s third largest trading partner in goods, after the US and China.
