Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal overwhelmingly backed by MPs, meaning we are set to leave the EU in 42 days Britain is officially on its way to leaving the EU on January 31 today after MPs finally backed Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal by a huge majority of 124. There were loud cheers across the chamber as MPs opted by 358 – 234 to deliver the new deal after three years of dithering and delay. Excited Tory politicians took snaps of the packed voting lobbies today – some of them walking through for the first time. Fresh with his whopping majority, the timetable motion passed through too, so the Bill will be finished off in the New Year. Boris was seen in the Commons signing copies of the Bill earlier as MPs celebrated finally getting on with leaving the EU. Six Labour MPs backed the Brexit deal too – Sarah Champion, Rosie Cooper, Jon Cruddas, Emma Lewell-Buck, Grahame Morris, and Toby Perkins. – The Sun > On Brexit Central: MPs give the EU Withdrawal Agreement Bill a Second Reading by a stonking 3-figure majority – how every MP voted Stop calling each other Leavers or Remainers, says Johnson, as his Bill passes its first hurdle… Britons will be able to stop referring to each other as Leavers or Remainers once the UK leaves the European Union in the new year, Boris Johnson has said. After months of delay and deadlock over Brexit, the Prime Minister said that it was now the time to act and forge a new relationship with the rest of Europe and “begin the healing for which the whole people of this country yearn”. MPs on Friday overwhelmingly passed the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill at its second reading, formally starting process of the UK leaving the EU. MPs voted by a majority by 358 votes to 234, a majority of 124. MPs also backed the Government’s three-day timetable by a majority for the remaining stages of the Bill in the Commons which means peers should start to scrutinise the legislation in mid-January, in time for the Jan 31 deadline. – Telegraph (£) Boris Johnson urges Brits to abandon ‘the old labels’ of Leave and Remain after MPs vote for his Brexit Bill – The Sun > WATCH: Highlights from the EU Withdrawal Agreement Bill Second Reading …while the Prime Minister insists there will be ‘no alignment’ with the EU after Brexit Boris Johnson insisted that Britain would not follow any EU rules after Brexit as he set up a showdown with Brussels over a trade deal. The Prime Minister made clear that he would pursue a hard Brexit by saying there would be “no alignment” between the two sides, defying the EU’s claim that it was a “must” for any future relationship. On a historic day for Britain’s relationship with the rest of Europe, the Brexit “divorce” Bill sailed through the Commons with a majority of 124 on Friday, and will become law on Jan 9, enabling a Jan 31 exit and for trade negotiations to begin in earnest. It brought an end to three and a half years of indecision in Parliament, and “means we are one step closer to getting Brexit done”, Mr Johnson said. – Telegraph (£) Jeremy Corbyn claims anew that Johnson’s Brexit means maggots and rat hairs in your food… Jeremy Corbyn has warned Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal would mean maggots in paprika and rat hairs in orange juice. The Labour leader said a post-Brexit US trade would mean signing up to lower standards as Britain runs short of bargaining chips. It came as Mr Johnson came to the Commons on the last day before Christmas to push through his Brexit deal. Mr Corbyn said: “The choice we now face is between keeping the highest environmental and food standards in order to get a future trade deal with the European Union or slashing food standards to match those of the United States where there are so-called acceptable levels of rat hairs in paprika, maggots in orange juice.” – Mirror …but six Labour MPs defy their leader to vote for the deal and dozens more abstain Jeremy Corbyn suffered a fresh humiliation today as half a dozen Labour MPs defied his orders and voted for Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal. Mr Corbyn had whipped his MPs to reject the Prime Minister’s Withdrawal Agreement Bill. But six rebelled in order to vote for it: Sarah Champion, Rosie Cooper, Jon Cruddas, Emma Lewell-Buck, Grahame Morris and Toby Perkins. Meanwhile, in a further blow to Mr Corbyn’s authority 32 Labour MPs opted to abstain on this afternoon’s crunch vote which Mr Johnson won by 358 to 234, a majority of 124. Some of those 32 MPs are believed to have been given permission to miss the vote. But Labour sources told MailOnline that as many as 25 had not and had actively decided to abstain. – Daily Mail Labour’s Brexit position set MPs up to fail, says Lisa Nandy Labour faces a hard road back in its former heartlands because the party’s decision to back a second referendum cemented a sense that it had stopped listening, the potential leadership candidate Lisa Nandy has argued. Nandy, the Wigan MP who served in Jeremy Corbyn’s first shadow cabinet, said that offering a softer Brexit was the “only way that you would have prevented the scale of the collapse” in seats across the north, Midlands and Wales. Speaking to the Guardian in a pub in Wigan, she said it was easy to blame Corbyn and believe that without him “everything will be resolved”. But she said the party’s Brexit position was also responsible. “In all honesty, Brexit just played into the sense that we are adrift from communities like these, that we don’t speak for them, we don’t stand for them, we don’t understand them, and worse than that: we’re deeply disrespectful towards them. And that has been building for the last 15 to 20 years,” she said. – Guardian Sajid Javid orders Royal Mint to strike millions of new Brexit 50p coins for third time of asking Millions of special Brexit 50p coins will be available to spend on Brexit day at the third time of asking, the Treasury said last night. After 50p coins with the previous exit dates this year – March 29 and October 31 – were minted and then discarded the Queen has agreed that the new coins can be minted with the new leaving date of January 31. According to the London Gazette yesterday the Queen issued a proclamation on Dec 18 that “‘31 October 2019’ there shall be substituted ‘31 January 2020” on the coins. Boris Johnson’s landslide election victory means that MPs are almost certain to pass his Brexit deal next month to take the UK out of the EU on Jan 31. – Telegraph (£) Next Bank of England Governor looks to ease rules after Brexit Andrew Bailey, named on Friday as the next governor of the Bank of England, has signaled a readiness to diverge from EU regulations after Brexit. Bailey will be one of the most influential policymakers in the country when he takes office next March 16 for a period of eight years — exceeding the mandate of elected politicians. He replaces Mark Carney, who governed since 2013 and won praise for putting climate change on the agenda for finance. Sajid Javid, Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer (finance minister) said Bailey’s appointment “is one of the most important decisions I will make.” – Politico James Forsyth: Boris Johnson has delivered on Brexit — now it’s time to get all the rest of it done Boris Johnson is delivering on his central election promise – to Get Brexit Done. Earlier today, the new House of Commons voted for his deal and the UK will leave on January 31. But this sums up the remarkable position that this Government is in. It will have done the main thing that it was put in power to do within two months of taking office. The danger for the Tories is that their new electoral coalition was held together by a desire to Get Brexit Done and fear of Jeremy Corbyn, and both of those issues will soon be resolved. As the party’s campaign director, Isaac Levido, pointed out to Tory MPs on Wednesday afternoon, Brexit and Corbyn won this election for the Tories and both of them will be gone by the time of the next election, so the Tories have to deliver for their new voters or risk defeat. – James Forsyth for The Sun James Crisp: Why Boris’s Brexit bill makes EU tariffs almost inevitable Boris Johnson’s revised Withdrawal Act Bill will make EU tariffs on Britain after Brexit almost inevitable. The EU leadership is still repeating its new mantra of “no quotas, no tariffs, no dumping” but, hopes that the prime minister would use his large majority to pivot to a softer break from Brussels have dimmed. The bill enshrines the end of 2020 deadline for trade talks between London and Brussels into UK law and will stiffen EU resolve to demand fair competition guarantees in the talks that will begin after Brexit on Jan 31. EU diplomats are unimpressed by the decision to make extending the trade deadline illegal. They argue that 11 months to seal the agreement is too short for a comprehensive agreement. – James Crisp for the Telegraph (£) Larry Elliott: Labour must not just accept Brexit but embrace it Modern Britain has been shaped by two events: the banking crisis of 2008 and the Brexit vote eight years later. The reason Boris Johnson is sitting in No 10 is that the Conservatives have learned the right lessons from these episodes and Labour has not. The Tories have understood that their response to the financial meltdown – a prolonged period of austerity that squeezed living standards – was unpopular and wrong. They also twigged that Brexit was a revolt against austerity and free-market economics more generally – so they have embraced the decision to leave the European Union and positioned themselves as the party of intervention and the working classes. – Larry Elliott for the Guardian Brexit in Brief Boris Johnson has finally got Brexit under way with a massive majority – The Sun says The real challenge to this Government lies in standing up to unelected power – Charles Moore for the Telegraph (£)