Brexit day - what happens next?

We are formally leaving the European Union at 11pm tonight. However, straight away we are entering an 11-month transition period that ends on December 31.

During this time we will continue to obey EU rules and pay money into the EU.

A lot of things will stay the same but there will be a few changes.

Perhaps the most obvious change is that the UK will lose all its 73 seats - its MEPs - in the European Parliament. This is because from the moment of Brexit the UK is giving up all of the EU’s political institutions and agencies.

But as we are continuing to follow EU rules during the transition the European Court of Justice will continue to have the final say over legal disputes.

Along the same political vein British ministers will no longer attend regular EU meetings. And in future Prime Minister Boris Johnson will need to be specially invited if he wants to attend EU Council summits.

Then there’s a lot to be organised when it comes to trade during this time. While we were in the EU we were not allowed to hold formal trade negotiations with countries such as the US. But now we will be able to start talking to other countries around the world about buying and selling goods and services.

However, the UK will still need to agree a trade deal with the EU to try to ensure those extra charges on goods and other trade barriers that we’ve heard about aren't needed when the transition ends.Any trade deals that are reached won't start until the transition period ends.

And perhaps this goes without saying but the team that handled the UK-EU negotiations and no-deal preparations, the Department for Exiting the European Union, will disband today.

For those of us who aren’t politicians or dealing in trade the first things we might notice are the return of the blue passport and the introduction of the controversial commemorative 50p Brexit coins as of today.

The new passport design, which was first used in 1921, will be phased in over a number of months. All new passports will be issued in blue by the middle of the year. But existing burgundy passports will continue to be valid.

And finally during the transition period Germany will no longer extradite suspected criminals to the UK as its constitution only allows citizens to be extradited to other EU countries.

But a vast majority of things will continue as before until December 31.

For example, when it comes to travel, UK nationals will still be allowed to queue in the areas reserved for EU arrivals only.

Driving licences, pet passports and European Health Insurance Cards (Ehic) will still be valid.

UK nationals will still be able to live and work in the EU because freedom of movement will still be valid during the transition.

This also applies to EU nationals wanting to live and work here.

UK nationals living in the EU will continue to receive their state pension and will also receive the annual increase.

As previously mentioned we will continue to pay into the EU budget during the transition so existing schemes, paid for by EU grants, will continue to be funded. And UK-EU trade will continue without any extra charges or checks being introduced.