Brexit: EU diplomats to get trade deal briefing

EU ambassadors are to receive a Christmas Day briefing on the post-Brexit trade deal reached with the UK.

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier will update the diplomats on the agreement, reached after months of fraught talks on fishing rights and business rules.

The UK is set to exit EU trading rules on 31 December - a year after officially leaving the 27-nation bloc.

MPs are still waiting to see the full text of the free trade deal ahead of a vote in Parliament on 30 December.

Labour said it was a "thin agreement" but they would back it as the only alternative to a no deal, meaning it should win approval.

The European Parliament also needs to ratify the deal but is is unlikely to do so until the new year, meaning its application will formally be provisional until then.

The UK's chief trade negotiator Lord Frost, said the deal document, which is made up of about 1,500 pages - including approximately 1,000 pages of annexes and footnotes - would be published soon.

In a Christmas video message, posted on Twitteron Thursday evening, Prime Minister Boris Johnson held a draft copy of the document aloft.