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16 pictures that tell the story of five years of utter Brexit chaos

It's been a rollercoaster.
It's been a rollercoaster...

Brexit is happening.

Boris Johnson’s Withdrawal Agreement will clear its final hurdle on Wednesday when it is ratified by the European Parliament.

It will mean Britain is leaving the EU at 11pm on Friday, marking the (official) end of one of the most divisive periods in recent British history.

But how did we get here? Yahoo News UK takes you through the key moments of the past few years:

15 April, 2015

Prime Minister David Cameron speaking at University Technical College in Swindon at the launch of the Conservative Party manifesto.
David Cameron speaking at University Technical College in Swindon at the launch of the Conservative Party manifesto in 2015. (PA)

The day all the fun starts.

David Cameron, terrified at Nigel Farage’s Ukip posing a genuine electoral threat, launches the Conservative manifesto for the 2015 general election – and it contains a pledge to hold a referendum on EU membership by 2017.

7 May, 2015

The Tories unexpectedly win a majority in the election and are free of Lib Dem shackles from the previous coalition government.

12 September, 2015

Jeremy Corbyn smiles as he leaves the stage  after he is announced as the new leader of The Labour Party during the Labour Party Leadership Conference in London, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2015. Corbyn will now lead Britain's main opposition party. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Jeremy Corbyn smiles after being announced the new leader of the Labour Party in 2015. (AP/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

A little-known backbench socialist named Jeremy Corbyn is elected the new Labour leader.

In the following years, his deep-seated Euroscepticism – contrasted with Labour’s natural pro-Europe position – causes chaos in the party and is ultimately exploited by Boris Johnson in the 2019 election.

20 February, 2016

Cameron, a staunch Remainer, announces the referendum is to be held on 23 June, 2016, keeping his manifesto promise.

Ministers in his government are free to campaign for Leave.

21 February, 2016

Mayor of London Boris Johnson speaks to the media outside his home in Islington, London, where he said he is to campaign for Britain to leave the European Union in the forthcoming in/out referendum.
Boris Johnson announces he will campaign for Leave in the 2016 referendum. (PA)

In a huge blow to Cameron, mayor of London Boris Johnson tells reporters outside his Islington townhouse that he’ll be campaigning against EU membership.

The Leave campaign has its figurehead.

23 June, 2016

UKIP Leader Nigel Farage speaking in London where he appeared to claim victory for the Leave campaign in the EU referendum.
Nigel Farage celebrates the referendum result in London. (PA)

In an unexpected result, Leave campaigners win the referendum by 52% of the vote to Remain’s 48%.

24 June, 2016

FILE - A  Friday, June 24, 2016 file photo of Britain's Prime Minister, David Cameron, speaking outside 10 Downing Street, London as his wife Samantha looks on. Cameron said he would resign after Britain voted to leave the European Union after a bitterly divisive referendum campaign. The momentous vote on June 23, 2016 has the potential to sever Britain’s ties to its main trading partner, a grouping it has spent more than four decades building ever-closer ties to. From common subsidies for farmers to standards on consumer products and banishing all types of impediments to trade, the British economy is deeply enmeshed in the workings of the EU. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)
David Cameron, watched by wife Samantha, announces he will resign in the wake of the referendum result. (AP/Matt Dunham)

Cameron, humiliated by his failed referendum gamble, is left powerless and resigns outside 10 Downing Street.

30 June, 2016

Former London mayor Boris Johnson waves as he announces that he will not run for  leadership of Britain's ruling Conservative Party in London, Thursday, June 30, 2016. The battle to succeed Prime Minister David Cameron as Conservative Party leader has drawn strong contenders with the winner set to become prime minister and play a vital role in shaping Britain's relationship with the European Union after last week's Brexit vote. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
Boris Johnson announces he will not run for the Tory leadership in 2016. (AP/Matt Dunham)

At a press conference, frontrunner Johnson dramatically rules himself out of the subsequent Tory leadership race.

He is widely seen to have been “knifed in the back” by his supposed campaign ally Michael Gove, who decides to enter the contest at the last minute.

It ultimately paves the way for…

11 July, 2016

FILE - In this Wednesday, July 13, 2016 file photo New British Prime Minister Theresa May and her husband Philip May stand on the steps of 10 Downing Street in London. Theresa May says she'll quit as UK Conservative leader on June 7, sparking contest for Britain's next prime minister. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)
Theresa May and husband Philip enter Downing Street. (AP/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

…Theresa May to take over as leader.

She doesn’t even need an election, after her one remaining rival Andrea Leadsom drops out of the race.

May, who campaigned for Remain, promises “Brexit means Brexit” and officially replaces Cameron as prime minister two days later.

29 March, 2017

May invokes Article 50, beginning the supposed two-year process to leave the EU on 29 March, 2019.

18 April, 2017

The PM stuns the country by calling a snap general election. It’s a plot to gain a bigger Tory majority in the Commons and get a deal over the line.

Brenda from Bristol isn’t happy.

8 June, 2017

MAIDENHEAD, ENGLAND - JUNE 09:  British Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader Theresa May speaks at the declaration at the election count at the Magnet Leisure Centre on June 9, 2017 in Maidenhead, England. After a snap election was called, the United Kingdom went to the polls yesterday following a closely fought election. The results from across the country are being counted and an overall result is expected in the early hours.  (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
Theresa May on election night. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

Polling day. May has had a disastrous election campaign while Corbyn flourished.

The PM duly loses her majority.

She cobbles a government together by entering into a shaky-looking confidence-and-supply arrangement with the Democratic Unionist Party.

The government hobbles along until the real trouble starts one year later...

8 July, 2018

David Davis MP in the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London, following his resignation as Brexit Secretary.
David Davis poses for a picture following his resignation as Brexit secretary. (PA)

David Davis, May’s Brexit secretary, resigns in protest at her strategy following an infamous Chequers getaway of Cabinet members.

Foreign secretary Johnson quits soon after.

10 months of turmoil begins.

14 November, 2018

May’s Withdrawal Agreement is published. It is much-maligned, particularly by the hardline Brexiteer Tories on whom she is relying to get her deal through the Commons.

In another blow, Dominic Raab, who replaced Davis as Brexit secretary four months before, immediately quits.

15 January, 2019

Protesters on Parliament Square ahead of the Commons vote on Theresa May's Brexit withdrawal deal. Photo date: Tuesday, January 15, 2019. Photo credit should read: Richard Gray/EMPICS
Remain and Leave protesters on Parliament Square ahead of the first 'meaningful vote'. (Richard Gray/EMPICS)

Amid fervent scenes inside and outside of Parliament, the Withdrawal Agreement is put to a Commons vote for the first time.

May suffers unprecedented humiliation, losing by a massive 230 votes.

12 March, 2019

The bill is put to a second vote. She loses again, by 149 votes.

22 March, 2019

Brexit isn’t happening on 29 March. An Article 50 extension to 22 May is agreed.

29 March, 2019

On the day Brexit was supposed to happen, the bill is put to a third vote. May loses again, by 58 votes.

10 April, 2019

Article 50 is extended to 31 October.

24 May, 2019

British Prime Minister Theresa May is seen breaking into tears as she made a statement in Downing Street after meeting Graham Brady, the chair of 1922 committee. Theresa May will resign as Prime Minister and the leader of the Conservative Party on 7 June 2019. (Photo by Dinendra Haria / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)
Theresa May announces her resignation. (Dinendra Haria/Sopa Images/Sipa USA)

The moment that felt inevitable for two years. A tearful May announces her resignation outside Number 10.

24 July, 2019

(left to right) Lucia Hunt, Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London as it was announced Mr Johnson is the new Conservative party leader, and will become the next Prime Minister.
Boris Johnson after he was announced as the new Conservative Party leader, having beaten Jeremy Hunt. (PA)

Johnson wins the subsequent Tory leadership contest, easily defeating Jeremy Hunt in the final ballot to become prime minister.

28 August, 2019

Crowd of protesters holds placards outside Downing Street in London demonstrating against British Prime Minister Boris Johnson�s plans to suspend UK parliament for five weeks ahead of a Queens Speech on 14 October, just two weeks before the UK is set to leave the EU. The Queen has approved Boris Johnson's request to prorogue UK Parliament after the Prime Minister stepped up his plans for a no deal Brexit. (Photo by Steve Taylor / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)
Protesters outside Downing Street three days after Boris Johnson's move to prorogue Parliament. (Steve Taylor/Sopa Images/Sipa USA)

Johnson – whose aggressive approach to Brexit negotiations alienates scores of Tory MPs who either resign or are sacked for not towing the government line – sparks further uproar as he announces he will prorogue Parliament until 14 October.

The PM claims it is necessary to plot the government’s domestic agenda.

But with the scheduled return day just two weeks before the 31 October deadline, it is seen as a way of silencing Parliament and forcing a no-deal exit.

His move sparks massive protests on the streets of London three days later.

24 September, 2019

Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow on College Green in Westminster, announcing that the House of Commons will resume business from Wednesday, after judges at the Supreme Court ruled that Prime Minister Boris Johnson's advice to the Queen to suspend Parliament for five weeks was unlawful.
Commons Speaker John Bercow in Westminster after announcing MPs will return to Parliament following the Supreme Court ruling that Boris Johnson's prorogation was unlawful. (PA)

Supreme Court judges sensationally rule that Johnson’s prorogation was unlawful. MPs return to Parliament.

17 October, 2019

Britain's Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Union chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, from left, pose for a photo during a press point at EU headquarters in Brussels, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019. Britain and the European Union reached a new tentative Brexit deal on Thursday, hoping to finally escape the acrimony, divisions and frustration of their three-year divorce battle. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Brexit secretary Steve Barclay, Boris Johnson, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier after a Brexit deal was agreed. (AP/Francisco Seco)

Johnson agrees a revised Withdrawal Agreement deal with the EU.

19 October, 2019

The PM fails to make progress in a special Saturday sitting of Parliament.

As Parliament hasn’t given its consent to the deal by this day, the “Benn Act” is activated and Johnson is forced to ask for another Brexit extension until January 31, 2020.

Johnson, who had previously said he would rather “die in a ditch” than request an extension, pointedly refuses to sign his name in the letter to European Council president Donald Tusk.

31 October, 2019

After yet more parliamentary deadlock, Johnson is finally granted his wish for a general election. The campaign starts the following week.

12 December, 2019

Bobby Smith, a political and fathers' rights activist and founder and leader of the 'Give Me Back Elmo' party, left, and Independent candidate Count Binface stand either side of Britain's Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader Boris Johnson wait for the Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency count declaration at Brunel University in Uxbridge, London, Friday, Dec. 13, 2019. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Boris Johnson at the election count in Uxbridge. (AP/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Johnson enjoys spectacular success in the poll, destroying Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour with a majority of 80 Tory MPs.

Brexit, to repeat the PM’s famous campaign motto, is officially “getting done”.

20 December, 2019

The first sign of Johnson’s new-found parliamentary muscle after years of Brexit deadlock.

With an army of Tory MPs behind him, the PM’s Withdrawal Agreement Bill sails through the Commons at its second reading with a majority of 124.

23 January, 2020

After easing through its nine remaining parliamentary processes, the bill receives royal assent and becomes law.

29 January, 2020

The Withdrawal Agreement is due to be ratified by the European Parliament, meaning Brexit is officially happening at 11pm on Friday 31 January.