UK’s House of Lords passes Withdrawal Agreement to allow Brexit by end of January

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit bill has cleared its final parliamentary hurdle after Britain’s upper house of parliament passed the legislation on Wednesday.

The move comes some three and a half years after the referendum in which a narrow majority voted for the UK to leave the EU, having joined in 1973. The referendum sparked a tumultuous period in British politics including the resignations of two Tory prime ministers and two general elections.

Earlier on Wednesday, the House of Commons overturned changes made to the legislation by the House of Lords which would have included protections for child refugees following Britain’s exit from the EU. The House of Lords later passed the legislation without pushing the proposed changes. 

The bill now just needs Royal assent from the British monarch before passing into law.

The UK has been granted a number of extensions to the initial Brexit deadline of March 29, 2019 by EU chiefs after a series of failures by both Johnson and his predecessor Theresa May to pass the negotiated agreement through parliament. Withdrawal agreement legislation was finally passed by the House of Commons following the Conservative Party's election success in December in which the Tories secured parliamentary majority.

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