After four years of talking about little else, when the Brexit deal eventually came on Christmas Eve in middle of a global pandemic,

he would have been forgiven for having missed the news.

Boris Johnson in Downing Street signing the post-Brexit trade deal.

Finally found an agreement.

It was a long and winding road.

The treaty that I've just signed is not the end.

It is a new...

The clock is no longer ticking.

I think the beginning of what will be a wonderful relationship.

For years, Brexiteers have promised that the city would flourish.

London would become Singapore on Thames once it left the financial regulations of the EU. But what does the deal actually mean for the

UK's financial sector? I wouldn't call the end of the city, but the city is probably in the

most precarious position it's been in, certainly in my lifetime.

Those fact chat lawyers, fact chat bankers, the companies that they're working for are paying pretty significant chunks in tax.

And if they're all a little bit poorer,

if some of those jobs are offshore, the amount of tax they pay will be slightly less.

And that means less money to spend on teachers, less money to spend on doctors,

less money to spend on hospitals. less money to spend on hospitals.

You're listening to stories of our times from the Times and the Sunday Times.

I'm Manveen Rana. Today, Brex and the city.

There were certainly points in the final week when they thought they wouldn't get a deal. Oliver Wright is the policy editor of the Times.

He's been covering Brexit for as long as he can remember.

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