Eurosceptics celebrate departure from the EU
EUROSCEPTIC Tory MPs have hailed the end of the Brexit transition period as a “victory for democracy and sovereignty”.
The UK left the single market and customs union at 11pm last night, 11 months after it formally exited the bloc.
Boris Johnson’s post-Brexit trade deal with the EU entered into law overnight after clearing Parliament late on Wednesday, when MPs and peers rushed through approval in a single day.
The Prime Minister said 11pm on December 31 marked a “new beginning in our country’s history and a new relationship with the EU as their biggest ally”.
Eurosceptic MPs, once derided as a band of fringe eccentrics on the margins of the Conservative Party, expressed their delight.
Veteran Tory Sir Bill Cash said it is a “victory for democracy and sovereignty” that can only be compared in peacetime with the evolution of modern democracy after the end of the Stuart dynasty.
He told the PA news agency he was “extremely happy and glad” that the UK is leaving the single market and customs union, and praised Mr Johnson, negotiators and voters for making it happen.
Sir Bill, who has sat on the European Scrutiny Committee for 35 years, said: “The victory is one for democracy and for sovereignty and it is a momentous moment.”
Fellow Eurosceptic Sir John Redwood, who has been a Conservative MP for more than 30 years, said he feels “much relief” that the UK has stated its wish to be “self-governing”.
He told PA: “I never doubted we would win the referendum. I argued that we were being good Europeans by stepping aside from their mighty task to create a United States of Europe.
“We should wish them well and be friends with them, but the fact that the UK had refused to join the euro showed where our hearts resided – with the wider world and with national democracy.
“Today I feel much relief that our country has been open with our friends in Europe and stated clearly we wish to be self-governing, whilst good friends and allies of theirs.
“I look forward to 2021 as a year of strong economic recovery, where we can start to use the new freedoms and opportunities now open to global Britain.”
Mark Francois, chairman of the European Research Group of Tory Brexiteers, told PA yesterday: “Tonight we get a chance to wave both 2020 and the EU goodbye, within an hour of each other.
“After a truly terrible year and a great struggle for our liberty, it’s a marvellous example of a buy one, get one free.”
Tory Eurosceptic Peter Bone said he was celebrating with French champagne to “show that we are pro-Europe but anti-EU”.