How did we get here?
With little more than 100 days until the United Kingdom's divorce from the European Union is supposed to be final, did anyone imagine this is where we would be?
This morning Europe's highest court confirmed that MPs can halt Brexit while Theresa May cancelled a "meaningful vote" in the House of Commons amid fears that her deal would be overwhelming rejected.
From David Cameron's promise of a referendum to the ongoing fury over Theresa May's proposed Brexit deal, here is how the United Kingdom's divorce from the European Union has unfolded.
Read more: Theresa May pulls Brexit vote to avoid Commons humiliation
A timeline of Brexit
7 May 2015: David Cameron wins a 12-seat majority in the General Election with a manifesto that includes a commitment to hold a ‘stay or go’ referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union.
17 December 2015: Opinion polls show a clear mood among voters to staying in the EU, with a 10 point lead over the remain camp.
24 June 2016: The referendum result of the previous day’s vote shows 51.9 per cent of the UK votes were in favour of leaving the European Union. All 32 local authority areas in Scotland voted to remain.
David Cameron, said to have been left “shocked and distraught” by the vote, immediately resigns as prime minister, bringing his six year premiership to an end.
June 28 2016: German Chancellor Angela Merkel issues a pre-Brussels summit warning that there will be no informal talks before the UK triggers the breakup. She also stresses there can be no “cherry picking” of the best bits of EU membership.
30 June 2016: Senior figures in the Tory party go to war over who will become Prime Minister. Michael Gove makes a shock announcement to run alongside Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom, after stating he did not believe colleague and key Leave figure Boris Johnson was a suitable candidate. Johnson withdraws from the leadership race.
11 July 2016: Theresa May becomes Leader of the Conservative Party after her challengers withdraw. She is later confirmed as Prime Minister and hands Boris Johnson the role of Foreign Secretary.
12 September 2016: Former Prime Minister David Cameron announces plans to quit Westminster.
17 January 2017: Lancaster House Speech. The PM’s Lancaster House speech is the first to set out her vision of a Brexit deal. Key points included UK law, travel, immigration, rights for EU nationals, trade and security.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says the speech made a new independence vote even "more likely".
29 March 2017: The Prime Minister triggers Article 50, which begins the process to leaving the EU. There is a two year time limit to finalise a deal.
18 April 2017: Theresa May calls a surprise snap general election, stating that Britain needed strong and stable leadership to deal with Brexit.
8 June 2017: The general election campaign sees growing support for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, while Theresa May loses her majority in Parliament. She is cornered into making a deal with Northern Ireland's DUP - led by Arlene Foster - to stay in power.
19 June 2017: Brexit negotiations begin, with a historic meeting in Brussels between Brexit Secretary David Davis meeting counterpart Michel Barnier.
26 June 2017: Formal negotiations on withdrawal begin.
22 September 2017: The Prime Minister’s speech in Florence is seen as an effort to break the deadlock surrounding Brexit negotiations. She sets out the UK position on how to move forward on key areas. It came a week after her Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson had produced his own Brexit vision, a move seen as an attempt to undermine the Prime Minister.
13 December 2017: Rebel Tory MPs side with the Opposition, forcing the government to guarantee a vote on the final Brexit deal, when it has been struck with Brussels.
15 December 2017: The EU agrees to move on to the second phase of negotiations after an agreement is reached on the Brexit “divorce bill”.
2 March 2018: The PM’s Mansionhouse Speech, outlines plans for the next phase of negotiations. She declares that ‘no deal’ is better than a bad deal.
19 March 2018: The UK and EU reach a number of key agreements, including dates for a transitional period after Brexit day, the status of EU citizens and fishing policy. However the Northern Ireland border remains a major stumbling block.
6 July 2018: The Prime Ministers gathers her cabinet at Chequers in a bid to reach agreement on the content of Brexit legislation. A day of high drama saw cabinet ministers warned of the risk of being sacked if they could not support the government. The meeting covered preparations for a ‘no deal Brexit, the end of free movement, financial implications of leaving the EU and questions of the future of trade.
The Chequers plan is highly divisive and is met with strong opposition from Brexiteers and EU negotiators.
12 July 2018: The Government publishes its Brexit White Paper. It outlines its approach to managing the country's withdrawal from the EU.
9 July 2018: Boris Johnson resigns as Foreign Minister, the third minister to quit in 24 hours over the Chequers deal. His resignation follows that of Brexit Secretary David Davis, who left with his number two at the Department for Existing the EU, Steve Baker.
Theresa May hurriedly reshuffles her cabinet, and appoints Jeremy Hunt as Foreign Secretary and Dominic Raab to replace Davis. The moves stave off a ‘no confidence’ vote.
17 July 2018: The UK Electoral Commission finds the Vote Leave campaign broke electoral law by spending over its limit.
21 September 2018: Theresa May is humiliated during the Saltzburg Summit, when EU leaders unexpectedly denounced her Chequers plan as unworkable.
3 October 2018: The Prime Minister dances on to the stage at the Conservative Party Conference to the tune of ‘Dancing Queen’.
8 October 2018: First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and her Westminster Depute Ian Blackford tell their party conference of a potential fresh push for an indyref2 once May strikes a Brexit deal.
2 November 2018: Police are said to be “carefully" assessing more than 900 documents to determine whether or not crimes were committed by Leave campaigns during the EU referendum.
14 November 2018: Mrs May is berated by her own MPs during a fiery PMQs, prior to delivering her 500-page draft Brexit divorce agreement to her cabinet.
10 December 2018: The European Court of Justice (ECJ) rules that Westminster has the power to order the UK government to revoke the Article 50 withdrawal notice underpinning Brexit.
10 December 2018: Theresa May cancels so-called 'meaningful vote' scheduled to take place in the House of Commons on 11 December.
29 March 2019: The UK’s membership of the European Union is due to end at 23:00, heralding the beginning of an 18 months transition period.
31 December 2020: The transition period ends and the UK enters a new political and economic era with the EU.
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