The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu
UK out of EU after Brexit deadline passes
Boris Johnson promised an era of “national renewal” ahead of the United Kingdom’s formal exit from the European Union.
Following almost half a century of membership and three and a half years after a referendum in which voters chose to leave the bloc by 52% to 48%, the UK exited the EU at 11pm.
Little will change immediately, as the UK begins a “transition period”.
Most EU laws will continue to be in force – including the free movement of people – until the end of December, by which time the UK aims to have reached a permanent free trade agreement with the EU.
Mr Johnson, speaking in a recorded Downing Street message last night, spoke of his ambition to “bring the country together and take us forward”.
“This is the moment when the dawn breaks and the curtain goes up on a new act in our great national drama”, he said.
The prime minister pledged to use “recaptured sovereignty” to deliver the changes people voted for “whether that is by controlling immigration or creating freeports or liberating our fishing industry or doing free trade deals”.
He added: “This is the dawn of a new era in which we no longer accept that your life chances – your family’s life chances – should depend on which part of the country you grow up in.
“This is the moment when we really begin to unite and level up. Defeating crime, transforming our NHS and with better education, with superb technology and with the biggest revival of our infrastructure since the Victorians.
“We will spread hope and opportunity to every part of the UK.”
The message came after Mr Johnson and his ministers held a symbolic cabinet meeting in strongly pro-leave Sunderland yesterday afternoon. The city was the first place to declare its result on the night of the 2016 EU referendum.
At that meeting, the prime minister said the UK Government would start work in earnest to secure a Canada-style free trade agreement with the EU.
And he told his close circle of ministers he wanted 80% of UK trade to be covered by free-trade arrangements by 2023.
Perhaps pre-empting the negotiations, European Council president Charles Michel warned yesterday that UK access to EU markets would be more restricted in future.
“The more the UK will diverge from the EU standards, the less access to the single market it will have,” he told a news conference in Brussels.
“We want to have the best possible relationship with the United Kingdom but it will never be as good as membership,” European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said.
Cabinet minister Michael Gove reaffirmed the government’s commitment to break with Brussels’ regulatory regime.
“We are moving further away from the orbit of EU rules and laws,” he told the BBC.
Mr Johnson spent the evening in Number 10 hosting a celebratory reception for senior ministers, officials and supporters of the 2016 referendum campaign to leave the EU.
Brexiteers gathered for a party in Parliament Square led by Nigel Farage, while Union flags flew around Westminster.
In official events, Downing Street was due to be illuminated with a light show while a new commemorative 50p coin is entering circulation.
In Brussels, the UK flag was removed from the EU institutions, with one expected to be consigned to a museum.
In Scotland, which voted to stay in the EU in the 2016 referendum, Leave a Light On gatherings took place in Aberdeen, Dundee and elsewhere.
“We will spread hope and opportunity to every part of the UK. PRIME MINISTER
BORIS JOHNSON