Mark Francois has referenced Braveheart during his contribution to the EU (Future Relationship) Bill debate in the House of Commons.

Addressing the chamber, the Conservative MP claimed that after a “truly epic struggle”, the UK can now write a new chapter as a “free people”.

He told the Commons: “What I call the ‘battle for Brexit’ is now over, we won. But I suspect the battle for the union is now about to begin.

READ MORE: Mark Francois fumes as live TV interview interrupted by EU campaigner

“We’re about to write a new chapter in what Sir Winston Churchill called our island’s story.

“But now, after a truly epic struggle, we will do it as a free people.”

Mr Francois added: “Mel Gibson once made a very entertaining film, but this is ‘cry freedom’ for real and now finally, it’s true.”

In his address, the MP, who chairs the European Research Group, also compared his Brexit-supporting colleagues to ‘Spartans’ and suggested that they could now “lower our spears”.

He said: “Thanks to this agreement on New Year’s Eve we will finally leave the European Union forever, so perhaps Big Ben will bong for Brexit after all.

“Nigel Farage memorably said last week, ‘the war is over’. Well it sometimes has felt like a war in this place.

READ MORE: Politics LIVE: MPs set to vote on EU-UK Brexit trade deal

“So perhaps we should now take on board the advice of the Prophet Isaiah who said, ‘and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more’.

“In that case, perhaps I and my Spartan friends should now lower our spears too, but perhaps keep them to hand just in case one day someone, perhaps the leader of the Opposition, should try and take us back in.

“My colleagues in the European Research Group have fought long and hard for this day and we have sometimes been lampooned or even vilified by the Remain-dominated electronic media for our trouble when all we have ever wanted is one thing – to live in a free country that elects its own government and makes its own laws here in Parliament and then lives under them in peace.”

Parliament is being recalled to put the agreement into UK law, one day before the UK stops following EU rules.

A debate started this morning with a vote expected around 2:30 this afternoon.