NE NEWS SERVICE
LONDON, JAN 19
The British government has announced plans for special events on January 31st night, when the country officially separated from the European Union (EU), but the country’s treasury chief has admitted that some UK business sectors will suffer.
Sajid Javid told the Financial Times in an interview on Saturday that Britain’s regulations will not be aligned with the EU in 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 bloc on the night of January 31, and the British government plans to mark the occasion with a series of upbeat events.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to make a speech to the nation that night after holding a rare cabinet session in the north of England.
The government also plans to mark Brexit by projecting a clock onto the PM’s official residence at 10 Downing Street in London that will count down until 11 pm, when the break takes place.
The 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.
But Johnson’s Conservative government is no longer actively pushing a plan to have the familiar chimes of the Big Ben clock tower at Parliament sound at 11 pm. Courtesy: AP
