THIS week marks five years since the UK voted controversially to leave the European Union.

Speaking earlier this week prime minister Boris Johnson said the historic vote will now act as a spur to jobs and renewal across the UK as it recovers from the pandemic.

In a statement to mark the anniversary on Wednesday of the 2016 referendum, the prime minister said it is his “mission” to use the freedoms it gave to deliver a better future for the British people.

Closer to home, we asked elected officials from both Leave and Remain camps how they thought the five years since the referendum had changed Britain.

Newport East MS, John Griffiths, voted to remain in the EU.

He says that he now respects the outcome of the vote, but has warned that Wales is already beginning to see "some of the negative impacts of Brexit".

He said that these problems were manifesting "in terms of employment, trading and obviously the difficulties around the Northern Ireland border issues".

"This whole episode has also led to a deterioration in community cohesion," he said.

"Welsh Government of course respect the outcome of the referendum and are committed to getting the best possible outcome post-Brexit – and one of the ways they are already doing this is by announcing a new International Learning Exchange scheme. "This will enable learners and staff, both from Wales and those who come to study or work in Wales, to continue to benefit from international exchanges in a similar way to Erasmus+.”

On the other side of the debate, Conservative MP David TC Davies, representing Monmouth, said that it was because of Brexit that the UK had "embarked on a world-leading vaccination programme" in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

He said: "In the run up to Brexit, Remain campaigners claimed we would run out of food and medicines - and the economy would collapse.

"In reality, we were quickly able to sign a trade deal with the EU and we are now seeing deals taking place with other countries. "Like the rest of the world, we have faced the worst crisis since the end of WW2. "But the economy remains strong. "Furthermore, it was because of Brexit that we were able to develop and approve a vaccine before the rest of the EU and embark on a world-leading vaccination programme which has saved lives.

Mr Johnson, who spearheaded the successful Vote Leave campaign, said the country had voted five years ago to “take back control of our destiny”.

“This Government got Brexit done and we’ve already reclaimed our money, laws, borders and waters,” he said.

However, Lord Heseltine, the former deputy prime minister who is now president of the European Movement, said Brexit was the “very opposite” of what the country needed following the pandemic.

“Five years on, Brexit is far from ‘done’. It has only just begun and the forecast is ominous,” he said.

“Storm clouds are gathering on the horizon, chief among them the threat to the Good Friday peace agreement in Northern Ireland."

How areas of Gwent voted in the 2016 referendum:

  • Blaenau Gwent: Leave: 62 per cent; Remain 38 per cent
  • Caerphilly: Leave: 57.6 per cent; Remain: 42.4 per cent
  • Monmouthshire: Leave: 49.6 per cent; Remain: 50.4 per cent
  • Newport: Leave: 56 per cent; Remain 44 per cent
  • Torfaen: Leave: 59.8 per cent; Remain: 40.2 per cent