The British government has announced plans for special events on the night of Jan. 31 when the country officially leaves the European Union but the country’s treasury chief has admitted that some U.K. business sectors will suffer as a result.
EU being Britain’s largest trading partner, Sajid Javid declared in an interview Saturday that Britain’s regulations will not be aligned with the EU in the future and that those changes may hurt some businesses.
“There will not be alignment, we will not be a rule-taker, we will not be in the single market and we will not be in the customs union — and we will do this by the end of the year,” he said, referring to a deadline at the end of 2020 for conclusion of what are expected to be contentious trade talks with the then-27 member EU.
Britain will officially leave the EU Union on the night of Jan. 31, even though it will keep following EU rules for an 11-month transition period. It will be the first nation ever to leave the Union. The British government plans to mark the occasion with a series of memorable events.
A speech by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is planned to take a place that night after holding a rare cabinet session in the north of England to emphasize his government’s plan to spread economical opportunities to the nation.
The government also plans to mark Brexit by projecting a clock onto the prime minister’s official residence at 10 Downing Street in London that will count down until 11 p.m., when the break takes place.
The entire government neighbourhood of Whitehall is to be illuminated for the occasion as part of a light show, with Union flags flown on all the poles in Parliament Square. The government will also create a commemorative coin that will enter circulation that day.
Britain voted in a 2016 referendum to become the first nation to leave the 28-nation EU, but the process has moved more slowly than expected. A stalemate last year kept a withdrawal bill from passing, leading to a rare December election that gave Johnson’s pro-Brexit Conservative Party a strong majority in Parliament.
With the new Parliament convend, the Brexit divorce bill quickly passed with a transition period that will last until the end of 2020. This transition period attempts to forge a trade arrangement between Britain and the remaining EU nations.
Johnson, who is also seeking a trade deal with the United States, has ruled out seeking an extension of the deadline for the EU talks.
