Brexit

Boris Johnson to host Downing Street party to celebrate Brexit

Ministers and advisers will toast departure with English wine and British-sourced food

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Boris Johnson will host a party in No 10 for cabinet ministers and pro-Brexit advisers at which guests will toast the UK’s departure from the EU with British-sourced food washed down with English sparkling wine.

Canapés will include savoury shortbread topped with Shropshire blue cheese, filet of lamb, a ploughman’s of cheddar and pickle, roast chicken skewers – probably not chlorinated – and roast beef and Yorkshire pudding with a horseradish sauce.

Downing Street officials have been keen to ensure there is little triumphalism amid enthusiastic celebrations from a core of leavers.

Johnson met his cabinet in the pro-Brexit town of Sunderland on Friday morning.

At 10pm, he is scheduled to deliver a televised address to the country calling Brexit not an end but a beginning and will describe it as “a moment of real national renewal and change”.

“This is the moment when the dawn breaks and the curtain goes up on a new act,” Johnson will say, according to snippets released in advance by Downing Street. “This is the dawn of a new era in which we no longer accept that your life chances – your family’s life chances – should depend on which part of the country you grow up in.”

It is not yet clear whether former prime minister Theresa May will be invited to the No 10 party, which will begin at 9pm.

Downing Street itself will be illuminated by a red and blue light show, along with the Treasury, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Justice, HMRC, and the Cabinet Office, plus the offices of Scotland and Wales.

The Northern Ireland office, possibly due to community sensitivities over the colours of the union jack, has not been included. A digital clock will also appear in Downing Street to count down the final hour of the UK’s EU membership.

No 10 has admitted trade with the European Union will not be “frictionless” after Brexit. “You can only have fully frictionless [trade] if you accept all their rules. We have been clear that we will not be doing so, the prime minister’s spokesman said.

This will not affect travellers or businesses on Friday but is expected to be introduced next January.