A police officer stands guard at 10 Downing Street in London on March 29, 2017. British Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday signed the Article 50 letter to officially begin Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union, nine months after the country voted to to leave the EU in a referendum, local media said. (Xinhua / Han Yan)
LONDON, March 29 (Xinhua) – The formal trigger of Article 50 by Britain to leave the European Union (EU) on Wednesday drew mixed reactions on streets in London.
“I think we are all Brexiteers now, but I really wish this did not happen,” said Phil Patterson, a teacher from Bermondsey.
“I kept voting, but it was a narrow call for me. In the end, I chose to put security before our own parliament was fully in power and my views have not changed since the referendum,” he told Xinhua.
Bermondsey is a working class area of London. It is close to the new financial center of Canary Wharf, where international banks and financial institutions employ tens of thousands of workers.
Goldman Sachs announced last week that it intends to increase its presence in Frankfurt and Paris over the next 18 months as a result of the Brexit process. Goldman Sachs International CEO Richard Gnodde said the numbers were skyrocketing into the hundreds.
But on Friday last week, Deutsche Bank said it would build a new headquarters in London for its staff, who are currently working at various locations in the city.
Over at Canary Wharf, bank employees expressed their opinion to Xinhua about Article 50 over their lunch break.
A financial analyst who has been educated in Britain but with a foreign background, who asked not to be named, said it was unclear how the Brexit process would affect the financial sector.
He added that he believed that London’s status as a global financial hub would not be lost, but that it could change.
“We knew this was coming. I’m sure my job is safe, but I wish we had not done so. It will make it harder for some companies in my sector,” he said.
Bank worker Louise Davies said she had voted for Brexit and was glad it had now formally begun.
“The EU is happy to tell us what we need to do, and I hope this ends,” she said.
Before the Brexit referendum on 23 June last year, experts had predicted that a vote to leave would hit the British economy.
Since June 23, the pound has fallen against foreign currencies, such as the US dollar. It traded at $ 1.48 on the night of the referendum and on Wednesday it traded at $ 1.24.
This makes British exports cheaper, but also makes raw materials and imports more expensive. This has become rapid in the economy with inflation now at 2.3 per cent on the CPI measure, up from 0.6 per cent for the vote.
But the hit for the economy predicted by some experts has not happened, and GDP growth has remained robust, with annual growth since the June vote at 2.5 percent, which is above the long-term trend.
“We were told that leaving would be bad for the economy, but that did not happen,” Davies said.
Outside a supermarket in Lewisham, a border in south London that voted strongly to stay in the EU and that has significant numbers of immigrants within the EU, the Commonwealth and from developing countries, there were supportive reactions to departure .
Paul Lee, an electrician originally from Wales and working on a major construction project in London, said wages and benefits in his sector had not improved and had decreased over the past 10 years.
He looked for an improvement once Britain was out of the EU.
“I voted to leave because our jobs have gone to foreigners,” he said.
John Royle, a welder, said he now earned less than 17 years ago and his employment contracts were less secure.
“Jobs are going to Poland and Romania,” he said, adding that he wished this would change once Britain was out of the EU.
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