Brexit news – live: Boris Johnson hails UK’s new ‘freedom’ as Macron attacks ‘lies and false promises’

Roads in Kent were quiet on Friday, and the first ferries sailed in and out of the port of Dover uneventfully. Around 300 trucks have passed through the Eurotunnel at Folkestone since the end of the Brexit transition period.

The Port of Dover told the PA news agency that “everything is running smoothly”. Tudor Price, deputy chief of Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce, praised the agencies involved in preparations at the border. “I think any potential bottleneck or short-term chaos has been averted,” he said.

But he called on the government to continue to negotiate with the EU where issues are outstanding, such as financial services. “There are still a lot of areas, a lot of industries that have yet to really have a satisfactory agreement in place.”

Curious about the power of your passport? Wondering how duty-free works at airports? Pondering trips with pets? Our travel correspondent Simon Calder has all you need to know about travelling from the UK to the EU now that the Brexit process is complete.

David Jones, deputy chairman of the European Research Group (ERG), said the customs barrier between Northern Ireland and the UK had not been something Brexiteers had wanted.

Asked whether he had expected Britain’s exit from the EU to lead to a “de facto border down the Irish Sea”, the ex-minister told BBC Radio 4’s World At One: “Certainly not … a border in the Irish Sea was something that we did not expect, nor did we approve of. And, yes, it does amount to a barrier.”

Jones added: “It is not the case that the government is simply ignoring the problem – it has done a great deal to mitigate the problem, but I think it is going to take some time before the new arrangements bed in.”

Labour MP Jess Phillips’s latest piece for The Independent – urging Leavers and Remainers to come together and move on from Brexit – is trending on Twitter.  

Europhiles are having none of it. Nick Reeves stated: “Sorry Jess, not doing. Brexit was won through the worst abuses of democracy in modern British history.”

And Kolley Kibber says it would mean “means standing in solidarity with the worst act of economic self-mutilation in modern UK history”.

In case you missed it, Iain Duncan Smith responded to the 11pm competition of Brexit by telling the BBC: “I just wish I was 21 again, frankly, because my goodness, what prospects lie ahead of us for young people now – to be out there buccaneering, trading, dominating the world again.”

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has responded to criticism about last night’s fireworks display in the capital – which featured a Black Lives Matter fist and NHS logo. Some Brexiteers felt the opening lights (which were blue and yellow) was a “political” message about the EU.

Our associate editor Sean O’Grady has been reflecting on what he got wrong when he voted to Leave the EU, and describes the deal we ended up with as “the worst of all worlds”

“In reality, as we now see, if your largest trading partner isn’t happy with the entire concept of out-regulating and out-competing them, then even if you produce superb goods and services you won’t have anywhere much to sell them, at least not to your nearest neighbours, because they’ll find a way to stop you or deter you.”

The EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier has tweeted a picture from Savoie Mont Blanc in the French Alps with a Brexit trade deal reference: “Where there is a will, there is a way.” 

The Brussels-based Telegraph correspondent James Crisp spotted an important change this morning, now that Britain has fully Brexited. “Amazon Prime no longer lets me watch Peppa Pig!”

Government officials are confident there won’t be any significant disruption to cross-Channel trade today – and are said to be expecting about only 800 lorry crossings on Friday (well below the usual 10,000 a day).  

But Rod McKenzie, head of the Road Haulage Association, said normal flows will start to build from Monday. “It is only then that problems will begin to emerge,” he said – adding that companies were still anticipating “invisible chaos” over the coming weeks.

Driver Slavi Ivanov Shumeykov smiled and waved as his Eddie Stobart vehicle became the first to go through new Eurotunnel controls in Kent just after 11pm last night.