Updated 4pm
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday signed the post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union, acclaiming it as the start of a "wonderful relationship" across the Channel.
"It's an excellent deal for this country but also for our friends and partners," he said at the signing in Downing Street, after EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel earlier had themselves inked the 1,246-page Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
Johnson signed the text after it was overwhelmingly backed by MPs in the House of Commons 521 votes to 73.
EU leaders signed the text in the morning and dispatched it to London on an RAF jet, setting their seal on a drawn-out divorce just hours before the UK brings its half-century European experiment to an end.
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.
"It has been a long road. It's time now to put Brexit behind us. Our future is made in Europe," von der Leyen said.
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Britain will leave the European single...
