Sun | Oct 19, 2025

Johnson hails UK’s ‘new beginning’ as Brexit day arrives

Published:Friday | January 31, 2020 | 9:30 AM
Pro-EU supporter Izzy Knowles, from Birmingham, England, wears a flag with a merger of the Union and EU flags during a ceremony to celebrate British and EU friendship outside the European Parliament in Brussels, Thursday, January 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

LONDON (AP) — Britain begins the day as a member of the European Union. Its status at the end of the day — as a proud nation that has reclaimed its sovereignty, or a diminished presence in Europe and the world — will still be up for debate.

The EU will have to bounce back from one of its biggest setbacks in its 62-year history to confront an ever more complicated world as its former member becomes a competitor, just across the English Channel.

Britain officially departs the EU at 11:00 p.m. local time Friday. 

The departure comes 3½ years after the country voted by a margin of 52%-48% to walk away from the club that it had joined in 1973.

It’s the first time a country has left the EU, and many in the bloc rued the day.

In Brussels, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen lamented that “as the sun rises tomorrow a new chapter for our union of 27 will start.”

But she warned Brexit day would mark a major loss for the UK and said the island nation is heading for a lonelier existence.

“Strength does not lie in splendid isolation, but in our unique union.” Newspapers across the continent were marking the departure with headlines of “Adieu to Europe” and “Bye-Bye!” next to a Union Jack flag.

UK.Prime Minister Boris Johnson was holding a Cabinet meeting in the pro-Brexit town of Sunderland, in northeast England.

He is scheduled to deliver a pre-recorded address to the country an hour before departure, calling Brexit “not an end but a beginning.”

According to his office, he will describe it as “a moment of real national renewal and change.”

The government hopes the moment will be marked in a dignified, nontriumphalist fashion, with red, white and blue lights illuminating government buildings and a countdown clock projected onto the prime minister’s 10 Downing St. residence.

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