All you need to know about the UK leaving the EU As the UK officially notifies the European Union that it is leaving, here is an easy to understand guide to Brexit beginning with the basics, then a look at the negotiations, followed by a selection of answers to questions we've been sent. What does Brexit mean?It is a word that has become used as a shorthand way of saying the UK leaving the EU merging the words Britain and exit to get Brexit, in a same way as a possible Greek exit from the euro was dubbed Grexit in the past. Why is Britain leaving the European Union?A referendum a vote in which everyone (or nearly everyone) of voting age can take part was held on Thursday 23 June, 2016, to decide whether the UK should leave or remain in the European Union. Leave won by 51.9% to 48.1%. The referendum turnout was 71.8%, with more than 30 million people voting. Find the result in your area Where does she stand on Brexit?Theresa May had been against Brexit during the referendum campaign but is now in favour of it because she says it is what the British people want. Her key message has been that "Brexit means Brexit" and she triggered the two year process of leaving the EU on 29 March. She set out her negotiating goals in a letter to the EU council president Donald Tusk. Why has she called a general election?Theresa May became prime minister after David Cameron resigned, so has not won her own election. She ruled out calling a snap election when she moved into Downing Street, saying the country needed a period of stability after the upheaval of the Brexit vote. She said she was happy to wait until the next scheduled election in 2020. But she surprised everyone after the Easter Bank Holiday by announcing that she had changed her mind with an election being called for Thursday, 8 June 2017. The reason she gave was that she needed to strengthen her hand in Brexit negotiations with European leaders. She feared Labour, the SNP and other opposition parties and members of the House of Lords would try to block and frustrate her strategy, making the country look divided to other EU leaders and making her government look weak. Mrs May inherited a tiny Commons majority from David Cameron, meaning that it only takes a few Conservative MPs to side with the opposition to vote down the government's plans. The Conservatives began the election campaign with a big lead over Labour in the opinion polls cartier love bracelet inside, What about the economy, so far?David Cameron, his Chancellor George Osborne and many other senior figures who wanted to stay in the EU predicted an immediate economic crisis if the UK voted to leave. House prices would fall, there would be a recession with a big rise in unemployment and an emergency Budget would be needed to bring in the large cuts in spending that would be needed. The pound did slump the day after the referendum and remains around 15% lower against the dollar and 10% down against the euro but the predictions of immediate doom have not proved accurate with the UK economy estimated to have grown 1.8% in 2016, second only to Germany's 1.9% among the world's G7 leading industrialised nations. Inflation has risen to 2.3% in February its highest rate for three and a half years, but unemployment has continued to fall, to stand at an 11 year low of 4.8%. Annual house price increases have fallen from 9.4% in June but were still at an inflation busting 7.4% in December, according to official ONS figures. It began after World War Two to foster economic co operation, with the idea that countries which trade together are more likely to avoid going to war with each other. It has since grown to become a "single market" allowing goods and people to move around, basically as if the member states were one country. It has its own currency, the euro, which is used by 19 of the member countries cartier bridal, its own parliament and it now sets rules in a wide range of areas including on the environment, transport, consumer rights and even things such as mobile phone charges. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media captionHow does the European Union work? What is Article 50?Article 50 is a plan for any country that wishes to exit the EU. It was created as part of the Treaty of Lisbon an agreement signed up to by all EU states which became law in 2009. Before that treaty, there was no formal mechanism for a country to leave the EU. It's pretty short just five paragraphs which spell out that any EU member state may decide to quit the EU, that it must notify the European Council and negotiate its withdrawal with the EU, that there are two years to reach an agreement unless everyone agrees to extend it and that the exiting state cannot take part in EU internal discussions about its departure. You can read more about Article 50 here. What date will the UK will leave the EU?For the UK to leave the EU it had to invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty which gives the two sides two years to agree the terms of the split. Theresa May triggered this process on 29 March, meaning the UK is scheduled to leave on Friday, 29 March 2019. It can be extended if all 28 EU members agree. What happens if there is a different government after the general election?Brexit would still go ahead if Labour wins the election. Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has ruled out a second referendum but he has said MPs will get a decisive say on the final Brexit agreement with the EU, which means the UK might try to go back to the negotiating table to push for a better deal. The Liberal Democrats are against a "hard Brexit" (see below) and have promised a second referendum on the terms of any deal. They have also ruled out any coalition deals with Labour or the Conservatives, aiming instead to become the UK's main opposition party a big leap from their current position of having just nine MPs. SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has been pushing for Scotland which voted to remain in the EU to have a special status after Brexit, including remaining in the single market. She has called for a second independence referendum before the Brexit package has been finalised. Read a full guide to where the parties stand on Brexit What's going to happen to all the EU laws in force in the UK?The Conservatives will enact a Great Repeal Bill

  cartier baby love necklace, if they win the general election. This will end the primacy of EU law in the UK. This Great Repeal Bill is supposed to incorporate all EU legislation into UK law in one lump, after which the government will decide over a period of time which parts to keep, change or remove. Labour has said they will scrap the Great Repeal Bill if they win the election and replace it with an EU Rights and Protections Bill, which will copy across all EU law into UK law but make sure it cannot be changed or scrapped. The party says it wants to keep EU laws on workers rights, consumer rights and the environment. Read a full guide to the Great Repeal Bill. What was the Supreme Court Brexit case about?After a court battle, the UK's Supreme Court ruled in January that Parliament had to be consulted before Article 50 was invoked. That was why a two line Brexit bill went through Parliament. MPs approved it after Labour MPs were told to support it. But it was amended in the House of Lords to include a call to guarantee the rights of EU citizens already in the UK and to ensure a "meaningful vote" for Parliament before any Brexit deal was agreed with the EU. MPs reversed those changes and the unamended bill became law after the Lords backed down, with Labour peers dropping their backing for the changes. That cleared the way for Mrs May to send her letter to the EU officially announcing that the UK was leaving.