Brexit Day: parties to mark European Union exit

The UK is officially leaving the European Union. For some it's a feeling of joy - for others, it's a feeling of despair. Many are hoping we can all just move on.

11 o'clock tonight is historic, and it's being marked across the East Midlands, which voted overwhelmingly to leave back in 2016.

Our reporter Mark Kielesz-Levine is at one Brexit Day party in Ilkeston in Derbyshire, where people with a variety of views on Brexit are gathering to mark the occasion.

This party has been organised by a Remainer, and they're going back to 1973 to help mark the occasion.

At 11pm on Friday, bonds dating back to 1973 when the UK joined the European Economic Community will be broken, but the Prime Minister insists Brexit marks “not an end but a beginning”.

Read more:

Brexit Day is here - but what happens next ?

Brexit: What is the EU Settlement Scheme?