brexit

Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 CET). The UK is the only member state to have left the EU, after 47 years of having been a part of the union — the EU and its predecessor the European Communities (EC) — since 1 January 1973. Following Brexit, EU law and the Court of Justice of the European Union no longer have primacy over British laws, except in select areas in relation to Northern Ireland. The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 retains relevant EU law as domestic law, which the UK can now amend or repeal. Under the terms of the Brexit withdrawal agreement, Northern Ireland continues to participate in the European Single Market in relation to goods, and to be a de facto member of the EU Customs Union.The European Union and its institutions have developed gradually since their establishment and during the 47 years of British membership, and grew to be of significant economic and political importance to the UK. Throughout the period of British membership Eurosceptic groups had existed, opposing aspects of the Union and its predecessors. The Labour prime minister Harold Wilson's pro-EC government held a referendum on continued EC membership in 1975, in which voters chose to stay within the bloc with 67.2 per cent of the vote share, but no further referendums were held as European Integration continued and became "ever closer" in the subsequent Maastricht Treaty and the Treaty of Lisbon. As part of a campaign pledge to win votes from Eurosceptics, the Conservative prime minister David Cameron promised to hold a referendum if his government was re-elected. His (pro-EU) government subsequently held a referendum on continued EU membership in 2016, in which voters chose to leave the EU with 51.9 per cent of the vote share. This led to his resignation, his replacement by Theresa May, and four years of negotiations with the EU on the terms of departure and on future relations.
The negotiation process was both politically challenging and deeply divisive within the UK, with one deal rejected by the British parliament, risk of a departure from the EU without a withdrawal agreement or trade deal (a no-deal Brexit), general elections held in 2017 and 2019, and two new prime ministers in that time, both Conservative. Under Boris Johnson's majority government, the UK left the EU on 31 January 2020 but continued to participate in many EU institutions (including the single market and customs union) during a 1-year transition period in order to ensure frictionless trade until a long-term relationship was agreed. Trade deal negotiations continued to within days of the scheduled end of the transition period and the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement was signed on 30 December 2020.
The effects of Brexit will in part be determined by the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which provisionally came into force from 1 January 2021 and was ratified on 1 May 2021. The broad consensus among economists is that it is likely to harm the UK's economy and reduce its real per capita income in the long term, and that the referendum itself damaged the economy. It is likely to produce a large decline in immigration from countries in the European Economic Area (EEA) to the UK, and poses challenges for British higher education and academic research.

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