LONDON: Brexit finally becomes a reality on Thursday as Britain leaves Europe’s customs union and single market, ending nearly half a century of often turbulent ties with its closest neighbours.
The UK’s tortuous departure from the European Union takes full effect when Big Ben strikes 11:00 pm (2300 GMT) in central London, just as most of the European mainland ushers in 2021 at midnight.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson called it an “amazing moment”, which would make Britain “an open, generous, outward-looking, internationalist and free-trading” country.
“We have our freedom in our hands and it is up to us to make the most of it,” he said in a New Year’s message to the nation.
Most people in Britain and in Europe are keen to draw a line under Brexit, which has dominated politics on both sides of the Channel since the country’s narrow vote to leave in 2016.
The referendum on EU membership opened up deep political and social wounds which remain raw, with the consequences of Britain’s departure to be felt for generations to come — for better or worse.
The British pound surged to a 2.5-year peak against the US dollar before the long-awaited exit from the single market, 11 months since the country legally left the EU in January.
Britain has been in a standstill transition
period since then, during fractious talks to secure a free-trade agreement with Brussels, which was only finally clinched on Christmas Eve.
Once Big Ben tolls at 11:00 pm, EU rules will no longer apply, and the free movement of more than 500 million people between Britain and the 27 EU states ends.
Gibraltar, a British enclave off the coast of southern Spain, is the exception, after inking a last-minute deal with Madrid to avoid a hard border and major disruption.
Elsewhere though, customs border checks return for the first time in decades, and despite the free-trade deal, queues and disruption from additional paperwork are expected.
“It’s going to be better,” said Maureen Martin, from Dover on the southeastern coast of England, where most voted to leave the EU in 2016. “We need to govern ourselves and be our own bosses.”
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