Brexit won’t be over by 29 March 2019. Britain will legally leave the European Union on that date. But that won’t tell us what Britain’s future relationship with the bloc will be, or how closely aligned the UK will be to the EU. Those are questions for which we will have to wait for the answers.
What MPs will vote on before next March is not a ‘Brexit deal’ but a withdrawal agreement. Theresa May won’t come to the Commons and table her Chequers plan for approval, which is just as well given that she doesn’t currently have the votes to pass it. Rather, she will put forward an agreement that sets out the financial settlement between the UK and the EU, what rights EU citizens here will have and vice versa, along with the arrangements for the Irish border. The agreement will contain a statement on the future relationship but it will be a non-legally binding political declaration, thereby opening the door to a ‘blind Brexit’.
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