The UK formally leaves the EU at 23.00 GMT tonight, bringing its 47-year membership of the European trade bloc to an end. While today marks a highly symbolic moment, the real impact of Brexit is still largely unfelt and substantially unknown.

Little will change in the short term, since the UK will continue as a member in all but name — and political influence — until at least the end of 2020. The negotiations that will determine the country's future relationship with its largest export market have not yet begun.