BRITAIN is leaving the EU.

At 12.20pm yesterday, Sir Tim Berrow, the UK’s ambassador to the EU handed the European Council president Donald Tusk a six-page letter from Theresa May sealing the fate of the country.

“I hereby notify the European Council in accordance with Article 50(2) of the Treaty on European Union of the United Kingdom’s intention to withdraw from the European Union,” the Prime Minister wrote.

Tusk took to Twitter: “After nine months the UK has delivered. #Brexit”.

This was, the Prime Minister told the House of Commons just minutes later, a “historic moment from which there can be no turning back”.

The two-year negotiation period starts now.

Downing Street later insisted Britain would be out of the EU when “Big Ben bongs at midnight” on March 30, 2019.

In her missive to Europe setting out the UK Government’s seven priorities for negotiations, the Prime Minister said the decision to leave in last June’s referendum was “no rejection of the values we share as fellow Europeans” and that Britain wants to retain a “deep and special partnership” with its neighbour.

That phrase was repeated several times in the letter.

Priorities for Britain, the Prime Minister wrote, was to sort out an “early agreement” about the rights of EU citizens living in the UK, and British subjects living in Europe. She also asked the negotiators to be mindful of the “importance of the peace process in Northern Ireland”.

And in a section of letter that elicited loud heckles and jeers when May read it out in parliament, she calls for the 27 countries remaining in the EU to work with Britain to “advance and protect our shared European values”.

“Perhaps now more than ever, the world needs the liberal, democratic values of Europe,” she added.

The letter struck a more conciliatory tone than previous statements from the Tory Government.

There was a rejection of the “no deal” scenario where the UK walks away from negotiations, and takes it chances with WTO rules.

There was also an acceptance that Britain could not “cherry pick” the best bits of the EU, in other words, no single market without freedom of movement. However, there was an implicit threat that the UK would swap security for trade.

A failure to make a deal, the Prime Minister said, ”would mean our co-operation in the fight against crime and terrorism would be weakened.”

May also told Tusk she wanted to agree a “deep and special partnership that takes in both economic and security co-operation. To achieve this, we believe it is necessary to agree the terms of our future partnership alongside those of our withdrawal from the EU.“ The EU have previously said that they want the principles of withdrawal, effectively the divorce bill, settled before moving on to talk about any future relationship.

The letter ended: “The task before us is momentous but it should not be beyond us.

“After all, the institutions and the leaders of the European Union have succeeded in bringing together a continent blighted by war into a union of peaceful nations, and supported the transition of dictatorships to democracy. Together, I know we are capable of reaching an agreement about the UK’s rights and obligations as a departing member state, while establishing a deep and special partnership that contributes towards the prosperity, security and global power of our continent.”

In Brussels, Tusk held up the letter at a press conference, and told reporters Brexit had, if anything, made the remaining 27 countries in the EU “more determined and more united than before”.

But he, added, invoking Article 50 was not “a happy day”.

“There is no reason to pretend today is a happy day, neither in Brussels nor in London. After all most Europeans, including almost half the British voters, wished that we would stay together not drift apart,” he continued.

Tusk, who will share Europe’s negotiating priorities tomorrow, said there was one positive from Brexit — that it had made the remaining EU members more determined and united than before ahead of “difficult negotiations”.

“There is nothing to win in this process and I’m talking about both sides. In essence this is about damage control,” he said.

“What can I add to this? We already miss you. Thank you and goodbye.”

In the Commons, the SNP’s Angus Robertson said it was important for “everybody to remember on this day that in the referendum on the European Union, the people of Scotland voted by 62 per cent to remain in the European Union.

“Every single local government area in the country voted to remain in the European Union.

This, he added: “happened two years after Scottish voters were told that they had to vote No to Scottish independence to remain in the EU. Yet ironically, this is exactly what will happen now because of the will of the majority elsewhere in the United Kingdom being imposed on the people of Scotland.”

He also warned the Prime Minister, that her “broken promise” to the Scottish Government of a UK-wide approach to Brexit would be noted by the people she was negotitating with in Brussels.

May and her government, he said, “have carried on blithely ignoring the views of people in Scotland and its democratically elected representatives. Europe is watching the way that this Government treat parts of the United Kingdom that voted to remain with Europe.”

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said May’s Brexit plans were “both reckless and damaging” as he warned his party “will not give this Government a free hand to use Brexit to attack rights, protections and cut services.”

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron accused the Prime Minister of “not enacting the will of the people”. Rather, he said, May was “interpreting that will, and choosing a hard Brexit outside the single market that was never on the ballot paper. “ He added: “Our children and grandchildren will judge all of us for our actions during these times. I am determined to be able to look my children in the eye and say that I did everything to prevent this calamity that the Prime Minister has today chosen.”

May’s statement to the House of Commons lasted three hours and 21 minutes, with the Prime Minister taking questions from 113 MPs.

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BREXIT TIMELINE

March 29 2017

Theresa May triggers Article 50

March 30 2017

Publication of the Great Repeal Bill to quash the European Communities Act 1972, and transfer all EU laws currently in force onto the UK statute book.

March 31 2017

European Council president Donald Tusk published negotiation guidelines

March 30/31 2017

Nicola Sturgeon sends request for a Section 30 order allowing second independence referendum to Downing Street

April 17 2017

Holyrood resumes after Easter recess. If Downing Street declines Section 30 request, First Minister to “set out the steps that the Scottish Government will take”.

April 29 2017

EU Summit where the 27 remaining EU members will adopt negotiation guidelines

Spring 2017

State opening of parliament, where Queen will announce the Great Repeal Bill

Late May/Early June 2017

Start of face-to-face talks between EU and UK negotiators

October 2017

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier expects initial discussion to conclude

November 2017

Great Repeal Bill adopts EU law as UK law

Early 2018

Great Repeal Bill likely to receive Royal Assent. Negotiations on trade deal could start

October 2018

Deadline for any deal

Late 2018/early 2019

Scottish referendum on independence?

Late 2018

Both Houses of Parliament and European Council and European Parliament will have a vote on any deal