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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Politics
Patrick Daly

Brexit anniversary: What's changed since UK voted to leave EU 6 years ago today?

Today marks the sixth anniversary since the UK’s vote to leave the European Union - but what has actually changed?

The result of June 23 2016, brought about the resignation of then-prime minister David Cameron and the subsequent rise and fall of Theresa May.

Then came the so-called “oven-ready” Brexit deal that ushered Boris Johnson into Downing Street and won him a thumping majority during the 2019 election.

When the question was put to the electorate, Britain voted by 52% to 48% to move away from the Brussels project, a result that sparked a tumultuous time in UK politics.

What has actually changed since Brexit?

Brexit brought with it a new navy blue British passport along with other bigger changes (Alamy Stock Photo)

From how people travel, the colour of the British passport, purchasing goods from the continent and using your phone while holidaying in Europe, Brexit has brought with it a myriad of changes.

Here are the top changes to every day life since Britain voted to split from the EU.

Free movement

Passport queues. You’ve probably heard about them.

With the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal, the UK left the single market and with it freedom of movement rules were scrapped.

Britons no longer have the right to live and work anywhere in the EU they please, and vice versa, in a move ministers say will help them tackle immigration.

It is why British citizens have to join the ‘non-EU nationals’ queues at airports and have their burgundy passports (or blueish if already issued with a post-Brexit travel document) stamped when entering and exiting EU member states.

Roaming charges

It was deemed a major breakthrough for consumers when mobile phone roaming charges were scrapped by Brussels in 2017.

But the Brexit vote always meant it was not guaranteed that scenario would last once the UK was out on its own and dealing with the EU via a new deal (and once the transition period, during which all rules stayed the same, ended).

Britain's EU exit has meant phone companies no longer have to follow the Brussels ban on roaming charges (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Free from the EU roaming charges ban since the start of 2021, companies have slowly announced that they will charge or reduce the allowance for British holidaymakers heading for Europe.

EE, Vodafone and Three have started charging customers again, as will Tesco Mobile from 2023.

Smaller provider gifffgaff announced on Wednesday it will reduce the data package that customers can use while travelling in Europe from 5GB down from a potential 20GB.

O2 and Virgin Mobile have so far held out on reintroducing the fees.

Import charges

As well as exiting the single market, Mr Johnson's Brexit deal saw the UK leave the customs union in January 2021 as well.

While that has wider repercussions for industries like the car manufacturing sector, shoppers in Great Britain have also been affected.

Buying goods from EU sellers worth more than £135 will mean needing to pay import VAT and shoppers may also need to stump up for customs duty, HM Revenue & Customs has warned.

Covid vaccine rollout

The UK was one of the fastest countries to roll out the vaccinations against coronavirus.

Boris Johnson and his Cabinet ministers regularly boasted that Brexit had proved a boon as it had allowed them to fast-track the process for inoculating the public rather than needing to collaborate with 27 other EU countries.

The UK government argued it was able to conduct its vaccine rollout quicker than other EU countries because of Brexit (PA)

Short-cutting the approval process for regulating Covid-19 vaccines and striking individual deals with big pharmaceutical companies, rather than doing it as one bloc co-ordinated by Brussels, meant Britain was ahead of Europe in getting jabs into people’s arms.

Trouble in Northern Ireland

Disgruntlement over Theresa May’s Brexit policy stemmed from her proposal to prevent friction in Northern Ireland, a divided community still scarred by sectarian violence.

Mr Johnson’s alternative Northern Ireland Protocol got Conservative MPs on board and promised to have resolved Mrs May’s issues.

But Unionist unhappiness over the protocol, which has led to border checks on goods travelling between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, has seen Stormont collapse and put the UK and EU in a tense stand-off over how to improve the situation.

Six years after the 2016 referendum, the question over how Northern Ireland - separated from GB by the Irish Sea and connected to the Republic of Ireland, an EU member state with a land border - fits into the UK’s post-Brexit future remains unsolved.

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