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In Pictures: The Brexit saga

A slim majority of Britons voted to leave the EU in a June, 2016 referendum. A lot has happened since.

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June 24, 2016: A taxi driver holds a Union flag, as he celebrates following the result of the EU referendum, in central London. [Toby Melville/Reuters]
By News Agencies
Published On 24 Dec 2020

Negotiators from the European Union and Britain worked through the night and into Christmas Eve to put the finishing touches on a trade deal that aims to avert a chaotic economic break between the two sides on New Year’s Day.

After resolving the remaining fair-competition and almost all fisheries issues on Wednesday, negotiators combed through hundreds of pages of legal text that should become the blueprint for a post-Brexit relationship.

As during much of the months-long negotiations, the issue of EU fleets in British waters proved the most intractable and divisive, with negotiators still haggling over quotas for individual species as dawn came.

Despite the breakthrough, key aspects of the future relationship between the 27-nation bloc and its former member remain uncertain. But it leaves the mutually dependent but often fractious UK-EU relationship on a more solid footing than a disruptive no-deal split.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will now claim to have delivered on the promise that won him a resounding election victory a year ago: “Get Brexit Done.”

June 28, 2016: A demonstrator waves a European flag as people gather for an anti-Brexit protest in Trafalgar Square in central London. [Justin Tallis/AFP]
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June 22, 2016: People hold hands as they attend a special service for murdered Labour Party MP Jo Cox, at Trafalgar Square in London. Cox was targeted for her defence of the European Union and immigration. [Toby Melville/Reuters]
July 13, 2016: Outgoing British prime minister David Cameron (R) waves after speaking outside 10 Downing Street in central London on July 13, 2016 on his way to Buckingham Palace to tender his resignation to Queen Elizabeth II. Cameron, who was against Brexit, quit after the UK voted to leave the EU. [Geoff Caddick/AFP]
June 12, 2019: Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May leaves Downing Street, as uncertainty over Brexit continues, in London. [Hannah Mckay/Reuters]
August 28, 2019: A demonstrator holds a banner during an anti-Brexit protest, outside the Houses of Parliament in London. [Henry Nicholls/Reuters]
October 19, 2019: EU supporters march as parliament sits on a Saturday for the first time since the 1982 Falklands War, to discuss Brexit. [Simon Dawson/Reuters]
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Boris poses after hammering a "Get Brexit Done" sign into the garden
December 11, 2019: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson poses after hammering a ‘Get Brexit Done’ sign into the garden of a supporter, in the final day of campaigning for the general election. [Stansall/Pool/AFP]
December 9, 2020: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, right, welcomes UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson prior to a meeting at EU headquarters in Brussels. [Olivier Hoslet/ Pool/AP]
December 22, 2020: An aerial view shows lines of freight trucks and other heavy goods vehicles parked on the tarmac at Manston Airport near Ramsgate, south east England, as the Brexit contingency plan ‘Operation Fennel’ was activated early to cope with lorries waiting to depart the UK. The move came after France closed its borders to accompanied freight arriving from the UK due to the rapid spread of a new coronavirus strain. [William Edwards/AFP]
December 24, 2020: Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a remote press conference to update the nation on the post-Brexit trade agreement, inside 10 Downing Street in central London. Britain said on Thursday, an agreement had been secured on the country's future relationship with the European Union, after last-gasp talks just days before a cliff-edge deadline. [Paul Grover/Pool/AFP]