The two most important things about the Withdrawal Agreement Bill is that, firstly, the United Kingdom will leave the European Union on 31 January, and, secondly, that the British government will spend the next phase of the Brexit talks the same way it did the first: negotiating against the backdrop of a ticking clock, because the British government will make it illegal to seek an extension to the transition period.
Boris Johnson’s promise to deliver Brexit by the end of 2020, which means that he has a year to complete his negotiations with the EU – trade talks usually take far longer, in large part because both sides delay things by insisting on this or that red line.
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