Brexiteers has responded to Lord Adonis likening the Brexit to the Munich Agreement – the infamous 1938 document by which western allies appeased Hitler.

The anti-Brexit Labour peer said on Wednesday that “we have sustained a total and unmitigated defeat”, adding: “Those were Winston Churchill’s words in the House of Commons on the Munich Agreement 82 years ago. Alas, they apply word for word to the Brexit agreement we are being asked to rubber-stamp today.”

Tory MP Michael Fabricant said: “Lord Adonis has become renowned for an extremism expressed in his own way. Fortunately few now choose to pay any real attention to anything he has to say.”

Former Tory minister David Jones said “nobody likes a bad loser,” while ERG chief Mark Francois added: “I would like to take this opportunity to wish Lord Adonis a very happy New Year in a free and independent country.”

The torturous Brexit negotiations were not the result of any EU desire to punish Britain for leaving, France’s European affairs minister Clement Beaune has said. “With Brexit, Britain is punishing itself,” Beaune told France’s LCI television. “We weren’t trying to punish it.

Emmanuel Macron’s minister added: “Britain realised that having no access to the European market would be an economic disaster. This is why, in the deal that was reached, there is access to the European market, but while respecting our conditions and rules.”

Beaune also said: “This day will be historic but it will be a sad day because, when a country leaves the EU for the first time after 45 years of living together, it is sad … Brexit must be a lesson that we must push forward better, faster and stronger as Europeans.”

Experts and former diplomats have said a trade deal with the UK will not be a priority for incoming US president Joe Biden in 2021, telling Politico it was more likely in 2022.

“I’d say the best-case scenario for a deal is 2022,” said Lewis Lukens, the former US deputy ambassador to the UK, who served under both Donald Trump and Barack Obama.

A deal “doesn’t appear to me to be real high on their priority list right now”, said James Clapper, director of National Intelligence under Obama.

Tom Tugendhat, chair of the foreign affairs committee said Boris Johnson’s government should focus in the short-term on getting both the UK and US to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership – a bloc that includes Canada, Australia and Japan.

Triumphant at Britain’s imminent exit from the EU, the Conservative MP Sir David Amess has shared a photo of his cardboard cut-out of Margaret Thatcher – claiming the former PM is “rejoicing in heaven”.

Both Leavers and Remainers have tried to claim Thatcher for the anti and pro-EU cause in the four and a half years since the Brexit referendum.

There will not be another national lockdown despite rocketing Covid-19 cases across the UK, the education secretary has said.

Gavin Williamson was “confident” the tier system would remain in place in England, describing it as “robust” and preferable to nation-wide measures.

As millions more people moved into the highest tier 4 level overnight, the cabinet minister argued that it was important to give local areas the ability to loosen measures depending on their control of the virus.

“I’m confident that we won’t be moving into a national lockdown situation because the tiering structure is the right place to be,” he told Sky News.

The long-time Labour MP for Wallasey in Merseyside Angela Eagle was made a dame at the new year honours.

Known for her work promoting women’s and LGBT+ rights, the 59-year-old said it was “lovely” to be recognised, adding that her “greatest honour is being able to represent people in parliament”.

Former attorney general Geoffrey Cox QC has received a knighthood in the new year honours. The gong comes despite the Tory MP’s prominent role in last year’s controversial shutdown of parliament.

Mr Cox advised Boris Johnson’s government that it was legal to prorogue parliament for five weeks in autumn 2019, only for the move to be ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court.

Mr Cox famously branded parliament a “disgrace” during the debacle – but he gets a knighthood for his “parliamentary and political service”.

One British haulage firm has already planned to temporarily suspend its European services in the new year to judge whether they will become “mission impossible” after the transition period ends tonight.

Essex-based Youngs Transportation and Logistics will pause operations to the EU from January 4 to 11 due to the uncertainty over the impact of new customs rules. Rob Hollyman, director at Youngs, said the company had decided to “let things settle” for the first week in January.

Hollyman explained: “The biggest concern is just how long the export customs clearance will take when we are leaving the EU with cargo on board and equally how long the UK customs clearance will take when we arrive in the UK and if there’s any divergence involved in either of those two processes.”

Asked if the Youngs temporary suspension of EU services could go on longer, Mr Hollyman replied: “If it’s a disastrous first week, and looks like it’s going to continue disastrously into the second, potentially yes.”

From January 1 lorry drivers will also require a permit to access channel crossings in Kent as part of plans to stop the county’s roads being clogged up by potential delays.

Hauliers still have concerns that customs checks will cause delays for freight when the Brexit transition period ends tonight at 11pm, a trade body has said.

Martin Reid, the Road Haulage Association (RHA) director for Scotland, said “There’s still a long way to go and there’s uncertainty about the details.

“There’s going to be confusion and mistakes on January 1, but there will be a bedding-in period. Customs requirements will have to take place. That’s a massive administrative burden on the industry.”

It’s almost over. Four and a half years after the referendum, Brexit finally becomes real at 11pm tonight. Boris Johnson may have to keep his celebrations muted this evening, but he is clearly feeling triumphant.

Asked if his deal was a case of having your cake and eating it, the PM told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg: “You said it … this is a cake-ist treaty.” Johnson also claimed it was “wonderful” for British exporters – despite the new customs declarations they’ll be filling out from tomorrow.

“They’ll now have the advantage that they’ll only have one set of forms they have to fill out for export to around the whole world … I think it’s a wonderful thing.”

The deal was signed into law after MPs backed it by 521 to 73 votes. Labour leader Keir Starmer made sure to criticise the “thin” agreement – warning of the “avalanche of checks, bureaucracy and red tape” – but 37 of his MPs still rebelled against his order to back the deal.