Norman Smith
Assistant political editor

Image source, Getty Images

Boris Johnson chose to take his cabinet to Sunderland - as a symbolic gesture - to say to voters Brexit has now been delivered.

But Mr Johnson was equally clear that he did not want today to be one of triumphalism for Brexiteers over vanquished Remainers.

Instead he expressed the hope that it might mark the moment the country began to come together and put behind it the bitterness of the past three years.

Visiting an automotive technology centre close to the massive Nissan car plant, Mr Johnson joked with staff and apprentices - but it’s clear manufacturers may soon face significant challenges.

Tonight in a video message Boris Johnson will present leaving the EU as a moment of national renewal and change - but it is also a momentous change for Boris Johnson.

Having campaigned and won on Brexit, the PM must now deliver on Brexit and the promises he’s made.

Lizzie Massey
BBC Live reporter

As Brexit enthusiasts around the country are gearing up to celebrate the moment the UK officially leaves the UK.

One of the most pro-Brexit constituencies in the south-east of England was Gravesham, in Kent, where 65% voted to leave.

Revellers at The Jolly Drayman Pub and Hotel in Wellington Street are donning Union flag hats, waistcoats and bow ties, as they raise a glass jubilantly, to see their referendum wishes fulfilled.

Image source, PA Media

DUP MP Sammy Wilson says the UK is breaking free from the "EU prison" and the "dank dungeon which has bound our economy, stunted our growth and restricted our economic freedom".

"It is important that the government does not allow the EU to continue its control through conditions attached in the negotiations which now have to follow about what our relationship is outside the walls of the European Union," he says.

"It is especially important for Northern Ireland that the concessions given to the EU in the withdrawal agreement do not leave us in the EU prison yard or acting as a part of the United Kingdom released only under licence.

"It is already apparent from what EU negotiators are saying that they will be aiming to keep Britain on a very short leash and if the prime minister and the government do not robustly oppose the EU in these future negotiations then Brexit will not be done."

Norman Smith
Assistant political editor

The prime minister has been holding a cabinet meeting in Sunderland today - which is symbolic because the city was the first count to declare for Leave in the 2016 referendum.

But it’s also part of that broader pitch to say to voters in communities who perhaps feel they have been a bit forgotten that they are now going to be a priority for the government.

It’s interesting too because Sunderland is so close to the Nissan plant in Washington.

We heard today from Michael Gove, I think really the first cabinet minister to say it publicly, that actually there are going to be checks, there are going to be regulations and there will be costs for business in any future trade deal because Britain wants the freedom to diverge from EU rules.

That matters big time for the automotive industry, which relies on a just-in-time delivery system for parts and other components.

The Dutch foreign minister sees little time left for crucial negotiations with the UK.

The Dutch government has been running a Brexit-awareness campaign using a blue Muppet-style monster to represent the UK's looming departure from the EU.

BBC News Channel

DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson says his party wants to see the UK leaving the EU "as one nation".

The DUP supports Brexit but has concerns about what the prime minister's withdrawal agreement means for Northern Ireland.

Looking ahead to the negotiations over the UK's future relationship with the EU, Mr Donaldson says: "We are very clear the prime minister must make it a priority to ensure that any future arrangement does not disrupt the economic or constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom and that Northern Ireland remains fully an integral part of the UK.”

He says it "remains to be seen" whether a trade deal can be agreed with the EU by the end of the year but "it's possible".

His message to Boris Johnson is that "he must not abandon Northern Ireland”.

Katharine Carpenter
BBC London Home Affairs correspondent

Senator Olivier Cadic, who represents French people who live abroad, has been speaking to parents at an international school in Wembley, north London.

He told BBC London the UK had to get used to the fact it was not the same country that it was - and that in maybe 40-odd years the country will change again.

The chair of the school PTA was visibly upset. Dressed in EU colours, Amelie Mallet said she was refusing to apply for settled status until the UK actually left the European Union.

Asked if that meant she would be applying tomorrow - she said she would not apply until the very last day of December in protest.

Image source, Getty Images

As the countdown to Brexit at 23:00 GMT continues, here is what has happened so far today.

• Pro and anti-Brexit demonstrations and marches are being held across the country, as the UK flag is taken down from EU institutions in Brussels
• Crowds have started to gather in London's Parliament Square, ahead of a celebration of Brexit there later
• A special cabinet meeting was held at the National Glass Centre in Sunderland - the first place to declare a pro-Brexit vote on referendum night
• Mr Johnson will host an evening reception in Downing Street for cabinet ministers, No 10 advisers, civil servants, those involved in the negotiations and supporter of the campaign to leave the EU
• Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the country had to "move on" after Brexit and "make sure we maintain good relations" with the EU
• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has paid tribute to UK citizens who "contributed to the European Union and made it stronger"
• In a speech in Edinburgh, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Scotland was being "taken out of the European Union against the wishes of the overwhelming majority" of its people
• Speaking in Cardiff, Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford - who campaigned for Remain in the referendum - said Wales was leaving the EU "with our heads held high", adding: "Wales remains a European nation."

Adam Fleming
Brussels reporter

The mood in Brussels is quite sombre today.

People are sad about British colleagues leaving or the fact that they’ll be interacting with them in a completely different way when the UK is no longer a member state.

There’s also a bit of sadness in a geopolitical sense in that a big, important member state is leaving the EU - is that a problem for the EU as an actor on the world stage?

But it’s also a bit strange because everyone has known this has been coming for quite some time.

The policy for today is to do it as low key as possible – not to make it look like a massive tragedy but not to make it look like the EU has managed to score a win over the UK in the negotiations.

A Brexit Day message from the US ambassador:

Lizzie Massey
BBC Live reporter

The EU flag still flutters proudly across coastal towns this afternoon.

It is atop Seaford museum's Martello tower in East Sussex, and outside seafront hotels on Waterlooo Crescent, Dover.

Meanwhile, the White Lion Hotel in Claremont Road, Seaford, is flying two Union flags outside.

As the moment the UK leaves the EU draws nearer, people from all sides of the debate have been making their feelings known.

#BrexitDay has more than 117,000 tweets, followed by #NotMyBrexit (14,800 tweets) and #IamEuropean(7,000 tweets).

Image source, Getty Images

Speaking to reporters in Carrickcarnon on the Irish border, Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald says the "majority of parties" in Northern Ireland, including her party, the SDLP, Alliance and the Greens, "continue to oppose Brexit".

"Neither the people, nor their political representatives have consented to the North leaving the European Union today," she says.

"People who consider themselves to be British, Irish, both or neither will lose practical benefits and entitlements, and there is a justifiable anger about this."

She says the EU "has been a partner for peace in Ireland" and provided "substantial political and financial aid that has led to greater economic and social progress on an all-island basis".

"The negotiation and implementation of the Good Friday Agreement has been facilitated by both the Irish and British governments' membership of the EU, and the peace process has benefited from that," she says.

Image source, PA Media

Outside the parliament buildings in Stormont, Sinn Fein activists are calling for a border poll - a referendum on whether Northern Ireland wants to remain a part of the UK or join the Republic of Ireland.

Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald has said there should be a vote within the next five years.

"I think people are very keenly aware that things are changing, that Brexit has accelerated the conversation on Irish unity and increasingly I have a sense that people want to be part of that conversation," she said.

Nigel Farage - one of the longstanding campaigners for the UK to leave the EU - begins his own celebrations.