Here is the government's statement: "Everything that the British public was promised during the 2016 referendum and in the general election last year is delivered by this deal."

"We have taken back control of our money, borders, laws, trade and our fishing waters

"The deal is fantastic news for families and businesses in every part of the UK.

"We have signed the first free trade agreement based on zero tariffs and zero quotas that has ever been achieved with the EU.

"The deal is the biggest bilateral trade deal signed by either side, covering trade worth £668bn in 2019.

"The deal also guarantees that we are no longer in the lunar pull of the EU, we are not bound by EU rules, there is no role for the European Court of Justice and all of our key red lines about returning sovereignty have been achieved.

"It means that we will have full political and economic independence on 1st January 2021."

"A points-based immigration system will put us in full control of who enters the UK and free movement will end.

"We have delivered this great deal for the entire United Kingdom in record time, and under extremely challenging conditions, which protects the integrity of our internal market and Northern Ireland’s place within it.

"We have got Brexit done and we can now take full advantage of the fantastic opportunities available to us as an independent trading nation, striking trade deals with other partners around the world."

And there we have it - the UK and EU have agreed a post-Brexit trade deal.

BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg confirms there will be a press conference on the post-Brexit trade deal at 15:00 GMT.

With negotiations ongoing, ambassadors from the European Union member states will not be meeting today, Sebastian Fischer, a spokesman for the German presidency of the Council of the EU has said.

But our Europe correspondent Gavin Lee says we're still expecting a trade deal will be confirmed later.

Image source, UK Parliament

Conservative MP for North West Leicestershire Andrew Bridgen says he will be "looking to ensure the PM hasn't crossed any red lines - that we are taking back full control of our laws, borders and money."

"If Boris has managed to pull off this deal in record time, that will be a great Christmas present for all the UK."

However he adds "the devil will be in the detail" and the staunch Brexiteer MP says he won't commit his full support until he has read the agreement.

Bridgen suggests that both sides should put the deal in place but allow the parliaments to scrutinise it afterwards "so we're not rushed into agreeing terms on a 2000+ page document".

“People need to realise a treaty of this sort is not just for Christmas.”

Katya Adler
Europe Editor

The negotiators who are right here in Brussels finishing off this deal stayed awake throughout the night, really haggling over the last details on fish.

You may remember last month, we just kept saying over and over again there were three outstanding issues:

Competition regulations - the EU saying there needs to be what it calls fair competition rules in order to give the UK tariff and quota free access to its single market.

The governance of the deal - so if either side, and break their word on this deal what could happen.

Then the third issue is fish - and that is where we are today.

And don't forget, it's not just a negotiation between the EU and the UK, but also between EU member states as well.

We wait to see the details, but essentially Prime Minister Boris Johnson needs to say that he has kept post Brexit sovereignty and the EU need to say that it has been able to protect its single market and both sides seem confident of that.

Laura Kuenssberg
Political editor

On both sides there is a very strong degree of confidence that today is finally the day.

And as far as Downing Street is concerned, the prime minister will be able to proclaim that he has done a free trade deal with the EU, and he has been able to fulfil the promises he made in his manifesto at the election that the UK will have control over its money, its border its laws and its fishing waters.

We expect that the deal will include an agreement that there shouldn't be quotas or tariffs, for the two sides to do business relatively freely.

But until we see the full text and been able to digest all of it - about 2000 pages, a real encyclopaedia of technical and legal detail - it is going to be hard to work out precisely who the winners and losers are in all of this.

But this is nearly the milestone that marks the end of what has been a really frantic period in political terms.

It's gone on for a very, very long time, but concluding such an enormous trade deal on the scale of this affecting hundreds, billions of pounds a year is really quite some feat.

Maybe no surprise then, there are a few niggles at the last hurdle.

BBC Radio 5 Live

BBC Radio 5 live took calls from listeners this morning. Here is a brief flavour of what they said.

Paul from Brighton is feeling positive. He is a business owner and says "the EU didn't do me any favours" adding: "We had to abide by all their rules."

Vivien from Edinburgh said she is worried the UK "will still lose freedom of movement. A right I have made use of for 20 years is being removed from our children and grandchildren. For bar staff, chalet workers, musicians, actors and retirees the loss of huge."

Lorry driver Annette from Cheshire feels "quite happy". She argued that foreign drivers subject to less rigorous checks have been able to undercut British drivers in recent years.

Chris from Anglesey said he is "sad that we are leaving a fantastic community of friends and neighbours".

Reality Check

One of the most closely-scrutinised parts of the trade deal will be what it says about fishing, despite it being a very small part of the UK and EU economies.

For decades, the UK’s fishing fleet has been subject to the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).

The CFP allocates fishing rights among the EU’s 22 coastal states.

According to international law, a coastal nation’s fisheries should extend 200 nautical miles from its coastline or to a maritime halfway point, as part of an area known as the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Outside the EU, the UK will become an independent coastal state, regaining control of its EEZ, but, as part of the trade deal, negotiators have been deciding how much fish EU boats should be allowed to catch in UK waters in future.

In 2018, EU-27 vessels caught 863,000 tonnes of fish - worth around £580m - in UK waters, while UK vessels landed 555,000 tonnes (including fish which were worth more), valued at £827m, in the same year.

Fishing only accounts for about 0.02% of the UK economy, but it was an important part of the Leave campaign in 2016, with many British fishermen keen for the UK to control its waters.

You can read more about it here.

Dharshini David
Economics Correspondent

Deal or no deal, goods crossing the border from 1 January will face changes and more red tape as the UK isn’t staying in the EU's single market.

HMRC has said the extra form filling and the like could cost British business over £7bn - and the same for those in Europe.

As they get to grips with the new arrangements, delays and disruption are possible.

Economists say the cost of some items could be bumped up by 5% or more.

Former Attorney General Dominic Grieve says leaving with a trade deal is preferable to going without one.

But he tells the BBC what is on offer is "very thin", saying it will "cost businesses wishing to export or import much more money and much more time and make us less competitive".

Mr Grieve lost his seat at the general election, after he was kicked out of the Conservative Party by the PM for backing a bill to try to stop a no-deal Brexit.

The staunch Remainer says he believes the UK "will gradually have to build closer relations again with our EU partners and neighbours" because "they are the countries with whom we trade and on whom our prosperity depends".

Mr Grieve says the arguments in his former party over the EU are far from over, adding: "The idea that this treaty we are about to get is the end of this is incorrect.

"Everything in the world is dynamic and it doesn't stop. The EU is going to develop, the United Kingdom is going to develop... but the geography isn't going to change.

"Whilst I know there are some people that believe we are going to be a global player again, I have my doubts about that."

Image source, Getty Images

As our political correspondent Chris Mason has just said, we don't need to tell you about how jargon-heavy the past five years have been.

But now we are approaching the nitty gritty of a 2,000 page legal text of a deal, it could be a good time for a refresher on some of the key terms and what they mean.

Read our jargon-busting guide of the words you need to know here.

Chris Mason
Political Correspondent

Image source, Reuters

As we continue to wait, I’ve found my mind wandering and pondering Brexit... and its assault on the English language.

Firstly, that very word itself, which 15 years ago might have plausibly sounded like it might be the component in a fridge freezer, rather than the UK’s departure from the European Union.

Right now, I’m reminded that the word “imminent” has, over the last four and a half years, become the most elastic piece of vocabulary imaginable.

Although, come to think of it, “deadline” runs it close.

And then there is the boat load full of Brexit clichés.

"Final push.”

“Eleventh hour.”

“Five to midnight.”

Apparently colourful phrases, increasingly shorn of meaning, bobbing around in an ocean of words, while we wait for the only ones that really matter.

Gavin Lee
BBC Europe reporter

An EU official close to the talks says negotiations are ongoing and it could be "a good few hours yet" before they conclude.

Image source, Getty Images

With the EU making up nearly half of UK trade, an agreement with the bloc is key.

But the UK is also aiming to do its own trade deals with other countries around the world.

As an EU member, the UK was automatically part of about 40 trade deals which the EU had with more than 70 countries. In 2018, these deals represented about 11% of total UK trade.

So far, 29 of these existing deals, covering 58 countries or territories, have been rolled over and will start on 1 January 2021. The latest deal to be struck was with Mexico on 15 December.

Talks are still ongoing with a further 10 countries or blocs - but many of the most important agreements have been done.

The UK government has also signed a new trade agreement with Japan, which means that 99% of UK exports there will be free of tariffs. It is very similar to the EU's own deal with Japan.

The government is also holding trade talks with countries that do not currently have EU trade deals, such as the US, Australia and New Zealand.

You can read more on the other trade deals the UK has done here.

Conservative MP for South Thanet Craig Mackinlay says he wants to support the deal but will wait to see the text.

He told BBC News, his colleagues on the European Research Group - a group of Brexit backing Tory MPs - have already had an initial meeting to discuss the deal.

"This is the end of a very long game," he says adding "I've had a personal stake in this game for 29 years."

He says he will be looking out for what provisions there are on the level playing field look like; what's the deal on fishing and whether there is ongoing involved of a foreign court under the European Court of Justice.

"The initial indications are that many of those facets of sovereignty are being returned," he says.

Image source, Getty Images

A leading German liberal MP, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, is upbeat on the type of deal emerging, saying the key thing is to avoid numerous tariffs and quotas.

Some 30,000 German firms trade with the UK, he noted, and “some have really had beads of sweat on their brows”.

He told Deutschlandfunk radio that “it would be a good thing” if the negotiators really had agreed to keep EU-UK trade free of tariffs and quotas.

He also said “it appears European fishing crews have succeeded in retaining at least 75% of their current catch over the next five years, and of course that’s far more than the French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and Belgians could have expected”.

He is foreign affairs spokesman for the Free Democrats (FDP) and a former Euro MP.

Image source, Reuters

You may have heard the issue of seed potatoes cropping up a bit today. Here is why:

Yesterday the UK government told the agricultural industry that the EU will allow almost all food and plant exports from Great Britain to continue after Brexit. Almost all.

Economics editor Faisal Islam writes: "Whereas the ongoing export of Ware potatoes for eating is confirmed, seed potatoes will be banned."

The seed potato industry is focused in the north of England and Scotland.

Responding to the news, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, external said: "This is a disastrous Brexit outcome for Scottish farmers...and like all other aspects of Brexit, foisted on Scotland against our will."

Image source, Getty

In short yes, the UK has already signed a deal with the European Union.

That was the withdrawal agreement - or the 'divorce deal' - which passed in 2019, setting out the terms of the UK’s exit from the bloc.

Today we’re talking about something different: the possibility of a trade agreement between the two sides. This would set out how the two sides do business with each other long into the future.

And just to quickly recap - talks have been held throughout the night in Brussels, and the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are due to talk over the phone shortly. And we expect them to hold separate press conferences later.