Brexit was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET). , the UK is the only member state to have left the EU. Britain entered the predecessor to the EU, the European Communities (EC), on 1 January 1973. Following this, Eurosceptic groups grew in popularity in the UK, opposing aspects of both the EC and the EU. As Euroscepticism increased during the early 2010s, Prime Minister David Cameron delivered a speech in January 2013 at Bloomberg London, in which he called for reform of the EU and promised an in–out referendum on the UK's membership if the Conservative Party won a majority at the 2015 general election. The Conservatives won 330 seats at the election, giving Cameron a majority of 12, and a bill to hold a referendum was introduced to Parliament that month.
In February 2016, Cameron set the date of the referendum to be 23 June that year, and a period of campaigning began. A total of 33,577,342 votes were cast in the poll, with 51.89% voting for Britain to leave the EU. Cameron announced his resignation as prime minister the next day, with Theresa May taking over the position on 13 July. On 29 March the following year, May delivered a letter to Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, which officially commenced the UK's withdrawal from the EU and began a two-year negotiating process.
Brexit negotiations between the UK and the EU began in June 2017, and, by March the following year, a "large part" of the withdrawal agreement had been agreed. On 25 November, the leaders of the remaining 27 EU countries officially endorsed the deal, with May putting it to Parliament in January 2019. The vote on the withdrawal agreement was defeated by 432 votes to 202, the biggest defeat of any government in the House of Commons. Two further votes on the deal—on 12 and 29 March—also resulted in large defeats for May.
Following these defeats, on 24 May the Prime Minister announced her resignation. A leadership contest began, which was won by Boris Johnson on 24 July. With the Brexit deadlock still not broken, on 29 October the Members of Parliament (MPs) voted in favour of holding a general election on 12 December. The Conservative Party won 365 seats in the election, giving them a majority of 80 seats. With a majority in the House of Commons now, Johnson's withdrawal agreement was voted through Parliament, and the UK officially left the EU at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020. A transition period—in which Britain remained a part of the European single market and the European Union Customs Union—began, as did negotiation on a new trade deal.
After negotiations throughout 2020, the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement was announced on 24 December, allowing goods to be sold between the two markets without tariffs or quotas. At 23:00 on 31 December 2020, the transition period ended, and the UK formally completed its separation from the EU. , the broad consensus of economists is that leaving the EU has had a substantially negative effect on the UK's economy, which is expected to be several percentage points smaller than it would have been if it had remained in the bloc.
Background United Kingdom–European Union relations
The UK entered the EC on 1 January 1973, following the ratification of the Treaty of Accession 1972, signed by the Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath. Two years later, on 5 June 1975, a national referendum endorsed the UK's continued membership of the EC, with 67.23% voting that the country should remain in the EC. Over the following decades, Eurosceptic attitudes began to develop within Britain's two main political parties, the Conservatives and the Labour Party. In the 1983 general election, Labour's campaign manifesto vowed to withdraw from the EC within the lifetime of the following Parliament. The manifesto was dubbed "the longest suicide note in history", and the election was won by the Conservatives, led by the incumbent prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher continued to serve as prime minister until she resigned on 22 November 1990, amid divisions within the Conservative Party over the UK's involvement in Europe. Two years later, the Maastricht Treaty was signed by the 12 member states of the EC, including the UK, which began the formal establishment of the European Union.
Political history of the United Kingdom (2005–13)
On 6 December 2005, David Cameron, the MP for Witney, was elected as leader of the Conservative Party, beating David Davis in the final round. After serving as leader of the opposition for nearly five years, Cameron led his party into the 2010 general election on 6 May that year. The Conservatives gained 97 seats for a total of 307, making them the largest party in Parliament. Labour, who had been in government before the election, won 258 seats, while the Liberal Democrats, with 57 seats, were the third-largest party. With no single party having won enough seats to form a majority government, the country had its first hung parliament since 1974. All three leaders made statements offering openness to creating an administration with another party, and a series of negotiations began. Just after midnight on 12 May, the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition agreement was approved, with Cameron as prime minister and Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, as deputy prime minister.
As well as a new prime minister, the 2010 general election also saw a new generation of more Eurosceptic MPs elected to the UK government. On 24 October 2011, Cameron experienced the largest rebellion over European integration since World War II when 81 Conservative MPs voted in favour of a motion calling for a referendum on the UK's membership of the EU. Of these 81 MPs, 49 had been elected in 2010. The previous month, a petition carrying over 100,000 signatures that also called for a referendum was delivered to 10 Downing Street. Faced with this growing Euroscepticism, on 23 January 2013, Cameron delivered the Bloomberg speech at Bloomberg London, in which he promised an in–out referendum on EU membership if the Conservatives won a majority at the 2015 general election.
Brexit
The word Brexit is a portmanteau of the phrase "British exit". According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term was coined in a blog post on the website Euractiv by Peter Wilding, director of European policy at BSkyB, on 15 May 2012. Wilding coined Brexit to refer to the end of UK membership in the EU – by 2016, usage of the word had increased by 3,400% in one year.
Pre-referendum 2013
23 January: Cameron delivers the Bloomberg speech, covering the UK's future relationship with Europe. He calls for reform of the EU and promises an in–out referendum on the UK's membership of the EU if the Conservatives win a majority at the 2015 general election. 15 April: The House of Commons votes on a private member's bill expressing "regret" over the absence of an EU referendum in the Queen's Speech. The vote is defeated by 277 to 130, with 114 Conservative MPs voting to regret. 19 June: The European Union (Referendum) Bill 2013–14—a private member's bill seeking to enshrine into law Cameron's promise to hold a referendum—is introduced by the Conservative MP James Wharton. 5 July: The bill passes its second reading in the House of Commons by 304 votes in favour to 0 against.
2014 31 January: Peers at the House of Lords vote by 180 to 130 to end the debate of the European Union (Referendum) Bill 2013–14, which concludes its progress through Parliament. Cameron expresses disappointment at this defeat. 12 March: Ed Miliband, the leader of the Labour Party, rules out matching Cameron's pledge to hold a referendum on EU membership if his party wins a majority at the next general election. He states that Labour would only hold such a poll if there were a significant transfer of power from Westminster to Brussels. 22 May: The UK holds elections to the European Parliament, electing 73 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). Across England, Scotland and Wales, the Conservatives' share of the vote drops by 3.8 percentage points, losing them seven seats. 12 June: Conservative MP Bob Neill announces that he will reintroduce Wharton's European Union (Referendum) Bill as a private member's bill. 28 October: The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats fail to agree on the amount of parliamentary time to be allocated to Neill's bill. The bill's progress through Parliament is again brought to an end. 19 December: The "long campaign" for the 2015 general election officially begins, limiting candidates' spending in their constituencies to £30,700 each.
2015 30 March: Cameron meets with Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace and informs her that the 55th UK Parliament is ready to be dissolved. The "short campaign" for the general election—scheduled to take place on 7 May—begins. 12 April: In central London, Clegg launches his party's manifesto for the general election, which commits to maintaining the UK's membership of the EU. 13 April: The Labour Party's manifesto is unveiled by Miliband at the Old Granada Studios in Manchester. It repeats Miliband's earlier pledge that, under a Labour government, powers would not be transferred to Brussels before an in–out referendum. 14 April: Cameron launches the Conservative Party manifesto at an event in Swindon. The document promises "real change" in the UK's relationship with the EU, and commits to holding a referendum on EU membership before the end of 2017.
24 April: At Chatham House in London, Miliband delivers a speech on Labour's foreign policy. He describes the government's timetable for an in–out referendum as "arbitrary", and criticises their lack of strategy for renegotiating the UK's EU membership. 25 April: Writing for The Sunday Telegraph, Cameron reiterates his promise that, should the Conservatives win a majority, they will begin the process of renegotiating the UK's membership of the EU, and will draft a European Referendum Bill. 7 May: The 2015 general election is held. The Conservative Party win 330 seats, giving Cameron a 12-seat overall majority in Parliament. Labour win 232 seats in total, a net loss of 26, while the Liberal Democrats win eight, a net loss of 49. 8 May: Following Labour's and the Liberal Democrats' defeats at the election, both Miliband and Clegg resign as the leaders of their parties. 27 May: A referendum on EU membership before the end of 2017 is included in the Queen's Speech. 28 May: The European Union Referendum Bill 2015–16—a bill that makes provision for a referendum in the UK to be held—is introduced by the Conservative MP Philip Hammond. 9 June: The bill passes its second reading in the House of Commons by 544 votes in favour to 53 against. Nominations open for the Labour Party leadership election, triggered by Miliband's resignation. 15 June: Nominations close for Labour's leadership election. Four MPs surpass the threshold of support required and are set to be placed on the ballot: Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper, Liz Kendall and Jeremy Corbyn. 25–26 June: At a European Council meeting, Cameron begins renegotiating Britain's EU membership with other EU leaders by setting out his plan to hold a referendum.
12 September: The results of Labour's leadership election are announced at a special conference at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in Westminster. With 59.5% of the first-preference votes, Corbyn is elected leader of the Labour Party and becomes leader of the opposition. 9 October: Vote Leave, a cross-party advocacy group campaigning for the UK to leave the EU, is launched. 12 October: Britain Stronger in Europe, a similar organisation advocating for Britain to remain, is launched.