He wanted to get Brexit done – but has Boris Johnson managed it yet?

End of the road? This is barely the end of the beginning, writes John Rentoul

Precious little will change for the 11 months of the transition period (AFP)

Boris Johnson said on Wednesday: “Parliament has passed the withdrawal agreement bill, meaning we will leave the EU on 31 January and move forwards as one United Kingdom. At times it felt like we would never cross the Brexit finish line, but we’ve done it.”

Well, not quite. As his hero once said, “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

Actually it was not even that. The House of Lords passed the bill, having offered its token resistance of sending five amendments back to the Commons to have them overturned by majorities of between 86 and 103.