After more than four years of intense debate, the final step in the long, winding Brexit saga went smoothly for the United Kingdom's Parliament, which overwhelmingly backed a recently agreed-upon trade deal with the European Union. The approval, which was mostly a formality by this point, frees up the country to exit the bloc in a much more orderly fashion on Jan. 1 than if no deal had been reached.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson signed the deal after the 521 to 73 vote.
Johnson did have support from most opposition Labour MPs, though a few broke with party leadership and voted against the deal, joining members from the Scottish Nationalist, Liberal Democrat, and Democratic Unionist parties, reports the Financial Times.
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The deal also got a unanimous stamp of approval from the 27 EU member states, and while it still requires a vote from the EU parliament, the bloc's laws allow it to take effect provisionally. Read more at the Financial Times.
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