Britain and the European Union announced on Thursday that they have reached an outline Brexit deal after days of back and forth negotiations. The deal however still has to be formally approved by the economic bloc and ratified by the European and UK Parliaments.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted that the two sides had struck a "great new deal" and urged UK lawmakers to ratify it in a special session on Saturday.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker also tweeted, “"We have one! It's a fair and balanced agreement for the EU and the UK and it is testament to our commitment to find solutions," just hours before all 28 EU national leaders are set to gather for a summit.
Johnson will now have to hope that he can push this deal past a divided British Parliament which has already rejected a previous deal three times.
He faced immediate opposition from his Northern Irish government allies which said today that they could not back the outline deal because of provisions for the Irish border.
Following the announcement of the outline deal, the pound hit a five-month high against the US dollar.
