king british food and agricultural production and for the 1st time since 1973 we will be an independent coastal state with full control of our waters with the u.k. so share of fish in our waters rising substantially from roughly half today to closer to 2 thirds in 5 and a half years time after which there is no theoretical limit beyond those placed by science or conservation on the quantity of our own fish that we can fish in our waters and to get ready for those for that moment those fishing communities will be helped with a big 100000000 pro pound program to modernize their fleets and the fish processing industry. and i want to stress that although of course the arguments with our european friends and partners we're with sometimes this this is that this is i

believe a good deal for the whole of europe and for us for our friends and partners as well because it will not be a bad thing in my view for the e.u. to have a prosperous and dynamic and contented u.k. on your doorstep and it will be a good thing it will be it will drive the jobs and prosperity across the whole continent and i do to be a bad thing if we in the u.k. do things differently or take a different approach to legislation because in so many ways our basic goals are the same and in the context of this giant free trade zone that we're jointly creating the stimulus of regulatory competition will i think benefit us both and if one side believes it's somehow being unfairly undercut by the other then subject to independent 3rd party arbitration and provided the measures

are proportionate we can either of us decide the sovereign equals to protect our consumers or businesses but this treaty explicitly envisages that such action should only happen infrequently and the concepts of uniformity and harmonize ation are banished in favor of mutual respect and mutual recognition and free trade and for squaring that circle for finding the philosopher's stone it's enabled us to do this i want to thank a present for the lion aslan on the line of the european commission our brilliant negotiators led by lord frost and we show barney a the e.u. so. as stephanie research as well as all of the louis team beryl lindsey appleby many others their work will be available for scrutiny followed by

a parliamentary vote i hope on december the 30th. this agreement this deal above all means certainty it means certainty for the aviation industry and the holders who have suffered so much in the pandemic it means certainty for the police the border forces the security services all those we rely on across europe to keep us all safe it means certainty for our scientists who will be able to work together to continue to work together on great collective projects because although we want in the u.k. to be a science superpower we also want to be a collaborative science superpower and above all it means certainty for business from financial services to our world leading manufacturers our car industry a certainty for all those who are working in high skilled jobs and in firms and factories across the whole the whole country because there will be no

palisade of terrorists on january the 1st and they'll be no non-tariff barriers to trade instead there will be a giant free trade zone of which we will once be a member and at the same time be able to do our own free trade deals as one u.k. whole and entire england northern ireland scotland and wales together and i should stress this deal was done by a huge negotiating team from every part of the u.k. and it will benefit every part of our united kingdom helping to unite level up across the country. and so i say again directly to our e.u. friends and partners i think this deal means a new stability and a new certainty in what has sometimes been a fractious and difficult relationship we will be your friend.

your ally your supporter and indeed never let it be forgotten your number one market because although we have left the e.u. this country will remain culturally emotionally historically strategically geologically attached to europe not least of course through the 4000000 e.u. nationals who have requested to settle in the u.k. over the last 4 years and to make an enormous contribution to our country and to our lives and i say to all of you at home at the end of this toughest of years that our focus in the weeks ahead is of course upon defeating the pandemic and don't be beating coronavirus and rebuilding our economy and delivering jobs across the

country and i'm utterly confident that we can and will do it we've by today we vaccinated almost 800000 people and we've also today resolved a question that has bedeviled our politics for decades and it is up to us all together as a new really and truly independent nation to realize the immensity of this moment and to make the most of it. happy christmas to you all. that's the good news from brussels not for the sprouts actually is not for the media let's go to the let's go to the media who i think we've got lawrence burke. over to you laura thank you very much trying to stir we're yet to see it tex of a steel which we understand runs to some guys and pages you've presumably had the

benefit of fan pouring over every word or maybe perhaps not every single word but can you tell the public honestly where did the u.k. give the most ground and where did the country mice the most you think. thanks laura would actually tell you about $500.00 pages and i think it would and it's readily intelligible i think i think the pit would be fair to say that we wanted we wanted to. make sure for instance that. we got access to got a complete control over of our fisheries from the get go that's the to say we had annual negotiations on fisheries within the shortest possible delay the e.u. began with i think wanting. a transition period of 14 years we wanted 3 years we've ended up at 5 years i think that was a reasonable

a reasonable transition period and i can assure a great fish fanatics in this country we will as a result of this deal be able to catch and eat quite prodigious quantities of extra fish so that's why we're going to have to make these investments in the in the fishing sector thanks very much your let's go to the robert best of i.t.v. sort of into a. prime minister you said all along you want to know kind of a style deal but what you've agreed means that we in the u.k. have to follow e.u. rules on subsidies or tax on workers' rights on the environment or potentially incur the imposition of tariffs that's right isn't it i mean we just heard you live on the line to say that she got her level playing field which you explicitly rejected all the way through you also just said there would be no non-tariff

barriers again that's not right from january the 1st as a result of reading the customs union and michael gove has been warning about this week in week out for months there is a ton of new bureaucracy of british businesses lots of new non-tariff barriers this is not to say the deal is a bad deal but you're not selling it correctly are your mis selling. well iran has to respectfully disagree with you because there is indeed a clause in the in the deal which is nothing like has as damaging as it as it was and in my view neutralize which says that if either country we feel that the other one is in some way undercutting them or or dumping in some way then subject to arbitration and provided the measure is proportionate. and that i mean independent arbitration or arbitration by the european court of justice but subject an independent how they can if they really choose put on tariffs to protect

their consumers and and their businesses and to give you an example of the kind of thing where that might occur for instance in the u.k. we want to do go further animal welfare standards and it might be that we do things for instance on how you how you really are pigs banning sokrates and so on that would encourage costs for our farmers. in might be that bacon coming from elsewhere in for him from the e.u. was it was a risk of death or of undercut as we might under those circumstances consider imposing tariffs i think it highly unlikely but we might consider it it would be have to be subject to arbitration it would have to be proportionate according to the arbitrator and under no circumstances would we be in any way constrained legally or otherwise by in the thing that the e.u.

deed or chose to do the selves nor furthermore would there be any role for the european court of justice and for people at home who've zoned out while i've been talking about this. let me tell you this is a very very long day's march from where we were of a few years ago you remember robert when we were talking about basically having a common rulebook with the e.u. and having dynamic alignment with e.u. law so that the u.k. was forced to to keep step and that has gone from this treaty and so far as the e.u. wanted it and there is no role for the european court of justice or whatever so i think it's i think it's a great treaty and as your point about non-tariff barriers yes i think it's important to stress. what i'm talking about is barriers on the grounds of you know

your plugs work won't work in our in our country there for their band or whatever. that kind of that kind of technical barriers to trade there's a lot in this treaty to try to reduce all that kind of thing make sure that doesn't that doesn't that's a good thing that's a good thing for businesses and consumers in that sense it's a great free trade deal but i must stress to people getting ready for january the 1st that you know there will be change. as you get on the the go but u.k. website exporters will need a or reforms and and everything else people should be aware of the change that is coming but there's also an opportunity because for british exporters now the whole world will be treated the same for export purposes and i think that will actually galvanize our exporters to think much more positively dynamically about the the opportunities that they have so i must respectfully disagree with both the points

that. you made this is a this is a a jumbo canada style free trade deal of exactly the kind that i think this country needs and it and as i say i believe it resolves a longstanding and very very difficult problem. people said you couldn't be part of the of a free trade zone with the e.u. without being obliged to follow you laws if you remember people i think there was a it was i think we were told we couldn't have our cake and eat it in that kind of thing i'm not going to i'm not going to claim that this is a cake ist treaty rabbit but. you know it's it's because that it is i believe. what the country needs at this time and the right way forward for for the u.k. let's go to sam coats of sky. i mean so you say this is an unprecedented deal example your red lines and promises to the country can people trust that life will

be better as a result of this deal and that there won't be any disruption even in the short term and can you guarantee the government won't up re end up reopening elements of the new relationship in the years to come well sam i mean really good really good questions i mean short term yes as i said just now there are things we have to get right process that the process is that maybe people have to to do that they need to be aware of and i'm going to that point really is worth reinforcing i do believe that the freedoms that this treaty winds as basically a new independence from the e.u. are worth having but you know. the free ports free trade deals being able to. do as i say to look after. you're a livestock differently improving your your your your landscape in a different way doing all sorts of things differently regulating financial services differently chemicals also things where we want we may want to do things

differently and and better but i would just say to people watching this it if i'm sorry for disturbing cause 3 by the way to say to people watching this i would say it's one thing to get freedom for winning freedom is a fantastic thing and that this is an important element of what we've done but it's how we use it and how we make the most of it that's what's going to matter in the in the in the months and years to come and i've no doubt that we can do fantastic things with this treaty if we with this new relationship which i think will be stable and prosperous for for both sides let's go to the top and you can down of times radio. good afternoon promised and thank you a couple of quick questions if you don't mind every deal means both sides have to compromise do you accept that you have to compromise throughout the last 11 months to keep up the last 11 days from perhaps your earlier slightly absolute its

positions perhaps up as a negotiating ploy but compromise is not a dirty word do you agree with that and secondly can you address services because i haven't heard you say much about 80 percent of course in the u.k. economy you say some british companies would do more trade with the e.u. because this deal will the british service expression of financial services sector will they be able to more trade or less trade well there's a there's a for 1st of all on the compromise point a compromise isn't a dirty word and unquestionably there are things that we've done to help our friends and partners to move things forward and i mentioned i think to laura where we got to on fish we started out wanting a very short. transition period. of 3 years they wanted a much longer one of 14 years we've we've compromised on that the 5 and

a half and on on you know. the vital services sector yes of course they will they've they feature in this in this deal quite quite rightly there's a there's a some good language about equivalents for financial services perhaps not as much as as we would have liked but it is nonetheless you know going to enable a dynamic city of london to get on and prosper as never before the some good stuff about. barristers lister's lawyers be able to practice around the european union we will be able to continue to have masse. we've been growing economic interpenetration without the need for. what i've always talked about this this blew a pool of law this and i as i say this is this is something that i think can

benefit people on both sides of the channel be a healthy dynamic productive happy stable relationship that's what we're aiming for let's go to george parker of the f t a prime minister position the change that will happen at the border in any event on january the 1st i just wanted it there was anything in this deal where the 2 sides agreed to introduce some sort of flexibility in the courts to make sure we don't have chaos and over in cali on general the 1st and 2nd more general point you nice to be a reporter in brussels we've covered the so psychodrama of british e.u. relations for a number of decades najah parar said today that the war is over i just wanted it you saw it in those terms. no i think the 1st of all on. on the border measures to. there are all sorts of things in the treaty that you will recognize about trusted trader schemes and special measures on the santry infighter

sanitary recognition and steps to. make sure that you know things flow as smoothly as we possibly can to again i stress that there will be things that people have to do look i mean the one of the great the e.u. was a mix was and is an extraordinary concept and it was born out of the agony of the of the 2nd world war. founded by. idealistic people in france and germany and italy who never wanted the countries to go to war with each other again and other countries belgium holland others and in many ways it's an it was and is a very noble enterprise so i you know i don't recognize that the kind of language that you that you talk of i think that the ukase own relationship with it was always difficult we all found some of the the language about ever closer union the

idea of this political union this very dense idea of this ideology of endless integration we found quite hard george and i think you know as a fellow brussels reporter you remember that there was there was quite a lot of friction involved i think that what we've got here is the basis of a new long term friendship and partnership that basically stabilizes that relationship and insofar as the u.k. needs to be in i'm always must be a great european power always must be a great great european power where the outside the main body of the of the e.u. but where there is a friend and as a supporter. as a flying buttress if you like to make sure as we have done so many times in the last. couple of 100 years that we're able to lend our voice when it's when it's needed and to be of value to our european friends and partners in

a strategic way and that's what the u.k. will obviously continue to do but i think the very dense program of integration wasn't right for the for the u.k. and that's why it was right to take back control in the way that we that we have and i think that this deal this deal expresses what the people of the country voted for in 2016 and i think there was a wisdom in what they decided and i think that we'll be able to go forward on this basis let's go to gordon rayner of the telegraph thank you prime minister merry christmas for tomorrow could i just ask probably half the people watching this right now would have voted remain in the referendum in 2016 g. how a particular message for them do you know people today are treating that this is a deal that it's not what they what they wanted they would rather have stayed in

what's your message today and just secondly could i also ask you we have more to get stay on that you mentioned covered earlier can you were another national lockdown after christmas. gordon thanks and i think my message to everybody on both sides of the divide is i of that argument in 2016 is i rethink we it's now a long time behind us and i think most people that i talked to whichever way they were inclined to vote back then just want it settled and want us to move on and i think this gives us the the platform the foundation for a really prosperous new relationship and i would be very excited. by this this deal you know this european question's been going on for decades. exactly what relationship we should have this is a a great new free trade deal. a trading relationship and partnership that i think will bring prosperity to to both sides of the cho and.

on the coronavirus and the struggle there. obviously we face a very considerable new pressures particularly from the the new variant in the speed with which that's been that's been spreading so we believe that we're going to have to get through this tough period now with as i say as i said many times barrie tough restrictions with tough tearing and you've seen what's been announced over the last day or so about that and much as i regret that i do think it is necessary for us to grip this virus now to stop it running out of control in in january because we need to buy ourselves time to get the vaccine into as many arms of the elderly and vulnerable as we can and that is the that is the real way

in which we will defeat the virus so it's tough to ring community testing and and rolling out the vaccine and. and it we're going to continue with with that approach and. i know that. it's been very very tough over the last few weeks and i must tell people it will continue to be difficult. not least a bit basically because of the the speed with which the new variant is is spreading but the vaccine is going into people's arms and there really is and now i think hope the certainty that we will have it we will have it defeated as i say by by the spring all that certainly what the scientists still believe in they're still there still confident of that so thanks very much good let's go to harry cole of the sun. prime minister can you give us some more details about the new security

arrangements with the are we going to be as safe next week in your under your new security partnership as we are today given it is russians are saying that they're going to look a 1000 live databases and if you've got this all up how you are recommend we celebrate sleep new next week well. i leave the your you know your manner of celebration entirely to you into individual taste i would i would want to mean we've come down quite enough bossing people around recommending this or that over the last last 10 months or so but on security and police cooperation i'm you know absent competent this is a deal that protects our police corporation protects our ability to catch criminals and to share intelligence across the european continent in the way that we have done for many years so. i don't think people should have fears on

that score or indeed only any score 'd let's get ahead a steward of the guardian. and i promised it michel barnier said today that we decided to meet the erasmus exchange scheme which sent thousands of students to e.u. countries every year i want to what you say to young people in trade as they will continue to discover the constant on our doorstep by living narrow studying or working that are being taken away from them and secondly do you have a message for his star who will have to decide in the coming hours and days how to quit labor m.p.'s when it whether they should do. right how the economy on iran's most it was a tough decision the issue really was that. as you know the u.k. is a massive net contributor to the continent's higher education economy because over the last decades we've had so many e.u.

nationals which we've been a wonderful thing but our arrangements basically mean financially the u.k. kes jacka. more or less loses out on the on the on the deal erasmus was also extremely expensive so what we're doing is producing a. u.k. . scheme for students to go around the world and it will be called the cheering scheme and it will serve students who have the opportunity to know dr alan cherry so the students have the opportunity not just to go to european universities but to go to the best universities in the world because you want our young people to experience the immense intellectual stimulation of. europe but also of the whole world and as for i think you're asked about which way should the opposition vote on this what is probably obvious. the opposition to vote excellent deal and and i would strongly encourage everybody to do the same thank you very

much everybody had a christmas thank you. ok we're just listening to the u.k. prime minister boris johnson who is conducting a press conference there because a new trade deal has been reached between the u.k. and the huge deal it was formally complete u.k. separation from the bloc 4 and a half years after that referendum he did say in his message to remain as he said look i believe the argument is gone we've all got to move forward together and he did go into a lot of detail about this new deal he said it's actually 500 page document not 2000 what he did say about it was this he said look it's a trade deal that is worth 660000000000 pounds a year and he described it as a jumbo canada style free trade deal he said it is there to protect jobs and it will allow goods to be sold without tariffs and quotas let's get more now what we

said to go to recently he was also listening to that press conference and he said just run through them that the main points i've just sort of highlighted a couple but what was the substance there of that press conference. it will be nearing their front boris johnson as that announcement comes full of that there is a deal that's been struck between the e.u. and the u.k. of course this is all quite last minute. only being given sensitive this year to negotiate it and it was of course put off track by the coded virus essentially writing off whole months of the year and there were many who thought the deal wouldn't be struck and it was at the last minute you have only a week until the transition period ends and barstow's and saying that they're still as a result of hard negotiations and compromises on both sides and how to sort some of those being picked up by some of the questions at the end by some of the nations press questions to do with for example access to databases when it comes to

negotiating or when it comes to fighting crime or cross border terrorism will the u.k. still have the same type of core cooperation will appear by this deal that there will be somewhat of a lessening of access for the u.k. for example to databases but there will still be cooperation but when it comes to the key question things like trade the u.k. saying that there will be no little there won't be any tariffs on trade between the 2 sides there won't be any quotas on trade between the 2 sides but there will be more red tape and we've seen the effects of some of that in anticipation of the end of the transition period if you move to the new relationships huge tell that they're in can't we've covered it extensively here on r.t. truck drivers and get stranded for days exacerbated by code restrictions and christmas queues as well and that will be

a backlog that has to be worked through but it would appear that going forward.