Highlights
- At 6pm Dubai time today (2 pm in London), the British Cabinet will consider the draft Brexit agreement the British negotiating team reached with their European counterparts in Brussels on Tuesday (November 13)
- The UK Cabinet then will decide on the next steps.
- If accepted by the British Cabinet, it will be the first negotiated withdrawal of a sovereign state from the European Union.
- It remains to be seen whether or not May can get any Brexit deal approved by the British parliament
At 6pm UAE time today, November 14, 2018 (2 pm in London), the British Cabinet will meet to consider the draft "Brexit deal" — the full text of the agreement forged by both the UK and EU negotiating teams in Brussels on Tuesday (November 13).
The British Cabinet will then decide on the next steps.
If accepted by the British Cabinet, it will be the first negotiated withdrawal of a sovereign state from the European Union. Whether May would get any deal approved by the British parliament remains unknown.
A spokesman at May's Downing Street office said: "Cabinet ministers have been invited to read documentation ahead of that meeting," the spokesman said, after British media were leaked details of the breakthrough.
Brexit in dates: From Leave vote to draft deal
From the shock Brexit vote to a tentative deal on the outlines of a withdrawal agreement, here are the milestones on Britain's rocky road out of the European Union.
June 23, 2016: Britons vote to leave
In a referendum, Britons on June 23, 2016, choose to end their membership of the EU by 52 percent to 48 percent.
The shock result prompts the resignation the next day of Conservative prime minister David Cameron, who had called the referendum and led the campaign to remain in the EU. In a race to replace him, Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson withdraws at the last minute and Theresa May, Cameron's interior minister for six years, becomes prime minister on July 11.
January 17, 2017: Clean break
May gives a major speech setting out her Brexit strategy, saying Britain will also leave Europe's single market.
March 13, 2017: Parliament approval
Britain's parliament gives final approval to a bill empowering May to trigger Article 50 of the EU treaty which lays out the process for leaving the union.
March 29, 2017: Exit process triggered
With a letter to EU President Donald Tusk on March 29, formally announcing the intention to leave, the government sets in motion Article 50.
Its two-year timetable for withdrawal is set to wind up by March 29, 2019.
June 28, 2017: Lost majority
To capitalise on the perceived weakness of the opposition Labour party and strengthen her hand in Brexit negotiations, May calls a snap election for June 8.
Her gamble backfires as the Conservatives lose their parliamentary majority. They are forced to strike a deal with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to be able to govern.
The issue of British guarantees to keep an open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland after Brexit becomes a key sticking point in negotiations.
December 2017: First terms agreed
Britain and the EU reach a deal on some key terms of the divorce in early December 2017 after all-night negotiations. They include Britain's EU bill as part of the settlement.
EU leaders give the go-ahead for the next stage of Brexit talks, including on how Britain will continue to trade with the bloc after the split.
June 26, 2018: Brexit bill passed
A bill enacting the decision to leave the EU becomes law on June 26, 2018, following months of debate and after receiving the formal assent of Queen Elizabeth II.
The bill transfers decades of European law onto British statute books and enshrines "Brexit day" as March 29, 2019.
July 6, 2018: Top ministers quit
May wins agreement from her warring Cabinet to pursue "a UK-EU free trade area" that would retain a strong alignment with the EU after Brexit.
Two days later, David Davis, the eurosceptic Brexit minister, quits as does his deputy. May is giving “too much away too easily”, Davis says.
July 9, 2018: BoJo quits
In a major blow, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson also resigns on July 9, having criticised the Brexit blueprint in private, and becomes a leading critic of May's plans through a weekly column in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
November 13. 2018: UK says draft deal agreed
The European Union on November 13 publishes contingency plans for a "no-deal" Brexit. But a few hours later, May's office says negotiating teams in Brussels have reached a draft agreement.
November 14, 2018 (6pm Dubai)
The draft Brexit agreement with EU which May's office said her team had reached with Brussels will be considered by the Cabinet on November 14.
March 29, 2019: “Brexit Day”
"Brexit day". The bill transfers decades of European law onto British statute books and enshrines.
An easy guide to Brexit
What does Brexit mean?
It is short for the UK leaving the European Union —merging the words Britain and exit to get “Brexit”. A possible Greek exit from the euro was dubbed “Grexit” in the past.
Why is Britain leaving the European Union?
A referendum — a vote in which everyone (or nearly everyone) of voting age can take part - was held on Thursday 23 June, 2016, to decide whether the UK should leave or remain in the European Union. Leave won by 51.9% to 48.1%. The referendum turnout was 71.8%, with more than 30 million people voting.
What was the Brexit vote breakdown across the UK?
England voted for Brexit, by 53.4% to 46.6%. Wales also voted for Brexit, with Leave getting 52.5% of the vote and Remain 47.5%. Scotland and Northern Ireland both backed staying in the EU. Scotland backed Remain by 62% to 38%, while 55.8% in Northern Ireland voted Remain and 44.2% Leave.
What is the European Union?
The European Union - often known as the EU - is an economic and political partnership involving 28 European countries. It began after World War Two to foster economic co-operation, with the idea that countries which trade together were more likely to avoid going to war with each other.
It has since grown to become a "single market" allowing goods and people to move around, basically as if the member states were one country.
It has its own currency, the euro, which is used by 19 of the member countries, its own parliament and it now sets rules in a wide range of areas — including on the environment, transport, consumer rights and even things such as mobile phone charges.
