British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has just told lawmakers in the House of Commons debate about the Brexit trade and cooperation deal that the UK “now seize this moment to forge a fantastic new relationship with our European neighbors,'' Sky News reports.

"Having taken back control of our money, borders, laws and waters on 31 January, we now seize this moment to forge a fantastic new relationship with our European neighbours based on free trade and friendly cooperation."

But it was not long before the SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford raised a point of order to challenge Johnson over fishing.

"Scottish fisherman are going to have less access and less fish to catch as a consequence of his con deal," Blackford says.

Johnson says he wants to "correct" Blackford, saying fishermen will have access to "bigger quotas.''

Johnson hails the "astonishing speed" with which the EU-UK trade deal was agreed and says the agreement "demonstrates how Britain can be at once European and sovereign.''

"It took nearly eight years for the Uruguay round of world trade talks to produce a deal, and five years for the EU to reach a trade agreement with Canada, and six for Japan," Johnson adds.

"We have done this in less than a year, in the teeth of a pandemic, and we have pressed ahead with this task, resisting all calls for delay, precisely because creating certainty about our future provides the best chance of beating COVID and bouncing back even more strongly next year.”

He suggests Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer will seek to "rewrite" the deal after the 2024 general election, should his party win power.

"We got Brexit done, let's keep Brexit done and let's press ahead with this government's mission to unite and level up across our whole country and grasp the opportunities before us," he adds.

"I've always said Brexit is not an end but a beginning. The responsibility now rests with all of us to make the best use of the powers we've regained and the tools we've taken back into our hands."

"I hope and believe this agreement will also serve to end some of the rancour and recrimination we've had in recent years," Johnson says as he concludes his opening to the debate.

"And allow us to come together as a country, to leave old arguments - old dessicated, tired, super-masticated arguments - behind and build a new and great future for our country.

"Those of us who campaigned for Britain to leave the EU never sought a rupture with our closest neighbors.

"We would never wish to rupture ourselves from fellow democracies beneath whose soil lie British war graves in tranquil cemeteries, often tended by local schoolchildren, testament to our shared struggle for freedom and everything we cherish in common.

"What we wanted was not a rupture but a resolution, a resolution of the old and vexed question of Britain’s political relations with Europe, which has bedevilled our post-War history.

"First we stood aloof, then we became a half-hearted, sometimes obstructive member of the EU.

“Now, with this bill, we shall be a friendly neighbour – the best friend and ally the EU could have – working hand-in-glove whenever our values and interests coincide while fulfilling the sovereign wish of the British people to live under their own laws, made by their own elected parliament.

"That is the historic resolution delivered by this bill."

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson implores the Uk to 'come together as a country, to leave old arguments – old dessicated, tired, super-masticated arguments behind and build a new and great future for our country.'

We got Brexit done, let's keep Brexit done, Boris Johnson says