Brexit breaks through

With the comfortable majority the party won in December’s national election, Conservatives in the British Parliament finally passed a Brexit bill on Thursday. Lawmakers approved the Withdrawal Agreement Bill by a vote of 330-231.

Is Brexit a done deal now? The bill clears the way for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union on Jan. 31. The country still has to negotiate new trade agreements with the EU once that’s done. “Leaving the EU doesn’t mean that we will have got Brexit done,” said Paul Blomfield, a spokesman for the opposition Labour Party. “We’ll have completed the first step, departure, but the difficult stage is yet to come.”

Dig deeper: Read Hannah Harris’ report in The Sift about British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s interesting heritage. Hint: He was born on this side of the pond.