‘Do I Need A New Passport?’ And Other Brexit Questions

After Brexit, how will the new development affect people’s personal circumstances and how they will be affected by the UK leaving the European Union.

David Cameron has said he plans to let his successor activate Article 50, which is the point when the clock starts on the negotiations for a Brexit.

Here are some of the other things we’ve been asked about the most.

Will I need a new passport?

You will have noticed that the top line on the front of the UK passport says “European Union”. Because the UK will remain a member of the EU for as long as it takes to negotiate the exit deal, such passports will be valid over that period – so there is no need to worry if you are travelling this summer, for example. After the UK leaves, there will presumably be new British passports that will no longer say “European Union” on them. While no one can say this for sure, it seems likely that the new design would just be phased in as existing passports expire.

Will My Ehic Card Still Work?

The European Health Insurance Card (Ehic) entitles travellers to state-provided emergency medical treatment within the EU country they are visiting. It works in any EU country as well as Switzerland and the European Economic Area (EEA) countries Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland. It will continue to work for as long as the UK is in the EU – so for at least as long as Article 50 negotiations take. After that, it is possible that the UK will have negotiated a deal to retain preferential access to the single market, as the EEA countries have, which would mean the continued use of Ehic. Alternatively, the UK already has reciprocal deals with a number of countries, including Australia and New Zealand, under which visitors can receive free urgent treatment. It could agree similar deals with EU countries.

Will I Need A Visa To Travel To The EU?

Again, while the UK remains part of the EU you will still be able to travel freely in the EU. It is possible that the UK will accept the continuation of free movement in order to retain preferential access to the single market, in which case you will continue to be able to travel freely in the EU. If not, while there may be limitations on British nationals’ ability to live and work in EU countries, it seems unlikely that those countries would want to deter tourists. There are many countries outside the EEA that British citizens can visit for up to 90 days without needing a visa and it is possible that such arrangements could be negotiated with European countries.

What About My EU Driving Licence?

Your driving licence features an EU flag in the top left corner with “UK” in the middle of it. The information on it is the same as those used by drivers everywhere in the EU. As with passports, the licence will remain valid while negotiations take place because the UK will still be part of the EU. What happens after that will depend on the results of those negotiations, but one possible outcome is that a new design will be phased in as old documents expire.

What Will It Mean For People Living In Other Parts Of The EU?

During the campaign, there were no suggestions from the Leave campaign that there would be mass deportations of the 3 million EU nationals living in the UK. There is unlikely to be any change to their status while negotiations on Brexit are under way and it is generally expected that they will be able to stay after the UK leaves the EU. The same is true of the estimated 1.2 million UK nationals living elsewhere in the EU. But while they are likely to be able to stay where they are, there are details that will emerge as part of the negotiations.

For example, at the moment, UK nationals claiming their state pensions in other EU countries benefit from annual increases. The same is true of some other countries outside the EU with whom the UK has social security agreements. But in many other countries, UK pensioners do not receive increases each year, which means that inflation reduces their spending power. It is not certain that UK pensioners in the EU would continue to get their annual increases. Similarly, some UK nationals living elsewhere in the EU are entitled to state healthcare funded by the UK government, which would be open to negotiation.

‘What Happens To My Italian Wife?’

It seems unlikely that your wife will be forced to return to Italy – nobody has suggested there will be deportations of people already living and working in the UK. If there were to be problems, she may be eligible to apply for British citizenship as she is married to a British citizen and has been in the country for more than three years.

Bringing Booze Back

When we leave the EU – will duty limits be reintroduced? For example, will we be restricted to just six bottles of wine being brought back from our trip to France?
Unless there is an agreement in the negotiations, customs limits are likely to be reintroduced. At the moment, the limits for bringing wine into the UK from outside the EU is four litres, which is just over five bottles.

Donald Trump hails EU referendum result as he arrives in UK

Donald Trump has touched down in Scotland in the middle of the UK’s biggest political crisis for decades to welcome Brexit, hailing the referendum result as a reflection of anger over loss of control to the European Union.

“The UK had taken back control. It is a great thing,” the Republican presidential candidate said.

He landed by helicopter on the front lawn of his Trump Turnberry golf resort shortly after 9am on Friday to find a Britain shell-shocked by the Brexit vote.

Wearing a white baseball cap, Trump strode the couple of hundred yards up the gravel path to the Ayrshire hotel accompanied by his family. He was not scheduled to speak to the press but could not resist responding to shouted questions from the media scrum. .

He described the referendum result as a historic vote and predicted many such uprisings around the world. “It will not be the last. There is lots of anger.”

Referring specifically to the UK, he said: “They are angry over people coming and taking control. They are angry about many things.”

He said the UK would recover. “It will heal,” he said.

He was asked about David Cameron but appeared to be saving himself for a later press conference, scheduled for 11am. Brexit is better for him than a remain vote and not just because he expressed vague support last week for leave.

He flew overnight from New York to Glasgow Prestwick airport, where he transferred to one of his three Trump helicopters: he keeps two in the US and one in the UK, with Trump in big red capital letters along the side. He took the short helicopter ride to his hotel.

He stepped down on the lawn to the sound of two pipers in full Highland regalia against the backdrop of the saltire, one of the biggest in Scotland, fluttering over the golf course.

The UK visit, Trump’s only overseas trip since he launched his White House bid, was set up primarily with business in mind, to cut a ribbon formally opening the renovated hotel.

It was a seemingly odd move for a presidential candidate, most of whom use such trips to demonstrate their grasp of foreign policy and be pictured with world leaders. But he may yet make a more conventional campaign trip by going to Israel.

US-based reporters travelled separately by charter, or at least those not put off in these financially strained times by the reported $10,000 price tag.

EU Referendum: Airbus assessing impact of 'disappointing' Brexit vote

The aerospace giant which employs 6,000 people in Flintshire said the decision was a 'wake up call'

The Airbus A380 Factory in Broughton, North Wales where the wing is manufactured then transported to France.

Airbus says it is “disappointed” by the vote to leave the European Union and will assess the competitive impact of the result.

The aerospace giant - which employs 6,000 people at the wing manufacturing plant in Broughton - had strongly backed the UK’s membership of the EU ahead of the June 23 referendum.

They said the UK decision to leave the European Union “should be seen as a wake-up call for Europe and as a catalyst for change”.

A statement from the company - the biggest employer in North Wales - said: "We will work constructively with the UK government to minimise any impact on our operations.

Brexit: UK rivals clash in heated EU referendum debate

Rival sides in Britain's referendum on European Union membership clashed in a passionate debate to the roars of an audience of six thousand in a London concert arena.

The debate on Tuesday evening, before Thursday's referendum, was a final opportunity for the two camps to win over voters, with polls showing a razor-tight race less than 36 hours before a vote that will shape the future of Europe.

Panellists locked horns over immigration, as the pro-EU London Mayor Sadiq Khan tore into his predecessor Boris Johnson, a key campaigner on the "Leave" side.

"You're telling lies and you're scaring people," Khan declared as he brandished a "Leave" leaflet warning that Turkey could join the EU.

"That's scaremongering, Boris, and you should be ashamed ... you are using the ruse of Turkey to scare people to vote Leave," Khan said to cheers from the audience.

Johnson threw the criticism back at Khan, saying the pro-EU side had run a "Project Fear" by warning that leaving the 28-member bloc would damage Britain's economy.

"They say we have no choice but to bow down to Brussels. We say they are woefully underestimating this country and what it can do," Johnson said.

The Conservative MP promised Britain an "independence day" on Thursday if it voted to leave, bringing sections of the audience to their feet in prolonged applause.

The prospect of Britain becoming the first state to defect from the EU in the bloc's 60-year history has raised fears of a domino-effect collapse of the European project.

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker earlier warned Britain against "an act of self-harm" he said would endanger everything Europeans had worked together to achieve.

'Very hostile'

As the audience filed into the 12,500-seat Wembley Arena, which often hosts global music stars, they were serenaded by pro-Remain demonstrators singing "All You Need is Love".

Organisers Avaaz said the serenade was an attempt to counter the "fear and division" of the campaign.

But the two sides remained deeply opposed and the audience split among equally vocal Remain and Leave crowds.

Brexit Q&A: All you need to know

"It felt like a football atmosphere ... it felt very hostile. You could tell there was almost a mist of blood in the air," said Michael Flaxington, 21, a student from Kent.

Linda Mayne, 60, also from Kent, who is retired, said that the debate was well-argued on both sides but had not swayed her from her conviction to vote Leave.

"I support Leave because I want the UK to have our own democracy back, to be able to control ourselves," Mayne said.

But 21-year-old student Anton Georgiou said the Leave side's "take back control argument" was "an empty slogan with no detailed plan whatsoever".

As the debate concluded, the Daily Mail newspaper announced that it was endorsing Brexit.

"Lies. Greedy elites. Or a great future outside a broken, dying Europe," read its front page. "If you believe in Britain vote Leave."

Two newspapers, the Daily Express and The Sun, carried front-page stories reporting that Queen Elizabeth II was challenging guests to give her "three good reasons" why Britain should stay in the EU.

Earlier this year, Buckingham Palace issued a rare complaint over a previous article by The Sun that claimed the queen favoured Brexit, a challenge to the monarch's long-held position of political neutrality.

The Times, which has backed Britain remaining in the EU, published a warning from hundreds of business leaders, including Virgin boss Richard Branson and US media mogul Michael Bloomberg, warning that Brexit could cause an "economic shock".

'Nobody knows'

"Nobody knows what is going to happen," Prime Minister David Cameron told the Financial Times, insisting he did not regret calling the referendum.

"I believe it will, one way or another, be decisive. Britain will not want to go through this again."

Actor Liam Neeson said that a vote for Brexit could be hugely damaging for his native Northern Ireland, potentially undermining the peace process that quelled decades of violence known as the Troubles.

"A UK exit would have the worst ramifications for the island of Ireland," Neeson said.

The outcome looked deeply uncertain, as a poll by Survation gave "Remain" 45 percent and "Leave" 44 percent, with 11 percent undecided.

Six major bookmakers showed the odds heavily pointing to a Remain vote, with the likelihood of Britain staying in put at around 80 percent. The latest surveys were mostly conducted after the brutal murder of Jo Cox, a 41-year-old Labour politician who campaigned to remain in the EU, who was shot and stabbed in her northern English constituency on Thursday.

Her alleged killer, 52-year-old Thomas Mair, gave his name as "Death to traitors, freedom for Britain" at his first appearance in court after being charged with her murder.

In an interview with the BBC on Tuesday, Cox's widower Brendan said she had been "worried" the debate may have been "whipping up hatred".

A couple stand by the Thames near a Vote Remain projection on to the exterior of Tate Modern art gallery, in London [Dylan Martinez/Reuters