Now we will see what our nation can achieve

ANEW adventure begins today for the people of Britain. The United Kingdom officially left the European Union on January 31 but today is the true Brexit Freedom Day. We are no longer beholden to rules dreamed up in Brussels by champions of a European superstate.

The days of slavishly turning EU directives into UK law are gone. British sovereignty has been restored.

We can now decide how to create the conditions in which our industries will thrive. We will make laws based on our oldest values and our greatest hopes for the future.

The world will see that a country can have no stronger friend than the UK and that we want to trade with people of goodwill on every continent.

The Daily Express was the first newspaper to call for Britain to leave the EU when we published a history- making front- page on November 25, 2010.

For decades, politicians and City bosses considered EU membership a necessary evil. But in all parts of the UK people dared ask why we should continue funnelling billions of pounds of taxpayers’ cash each year into a club we really wanted to leave.

There was the growing worry Britain was missing out on opportunities to build relationships with emerging economic powerhouses. For a trading nation like the UK, it was increasingly painful to be bound by Brussels’ red tape.

The big beasts of the political class scoffed at ordinary people who had the courage to make the case for leaving the EU but the dream of Brexit took root.

Everybody who made the case for independence pushed the country closer to freedom.

The 2016 referendum was a revolutionary moment. It demonstrated that free people have more confidence in their country’s potential for rebirth than the leaders of traditional parties of power.

The challenge now is to deliver on the promise of Brexit, truly take control, and build a prosperous, fairer nation that champions our values on the world stage.