The UK’s post-Brexit trade deal with Brussels delivers a “historic resolution” making the country a “friendly neighbour” to the European Union, Boris Johnson will tell Member of parliaments on Wednesday as they vote on the agreement.

The 80-page bill, which follows a last-minute deal agreed with the European Union (EU) last week just days before the December 31 deadline of the end of the Brexit transition period, will be debated by members of Parliament in the House of Commons followed by the House of Lords.

In a speech to parliament ahead of the vote, Boris Johnson will hail the deal sealed on Christmas Eve, arguing that it represents “how Britain can be at once European and sovereign”, as well as praising negotiators for securing it at “astonishing speed” in the “teeth of a pandemic”.

Johnson has urged MPs to back the ''historic'' bill, which he says is not ''a rupture but a resolution'' of the UK's relationship with its European neighbours. ''What we sought was not a rupture but a resolution, a resolution of the old and vexed question of Britain's political relations with Europe, which bedevilled our post-War history,'' said Johnson, as part of his opening speech in the Commons.

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