DIVERGENCE from European Union rules, as announced by the Tory government today, could be welcome but is unlikely to benefit working people unless a left-led government is elected, communists said today.

Communist Party of Britain general secretary Robert Griffiths warned that Prime Minister Boris Johnson will not have the interests of the people in mind when making key decisions after the country leaves the EU on Friday.

Home Secretary Priti Patel and Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay both said in TV interviews that Britain would “take back control” of laws, money and borders and will diverge from the bloc’s rules as a “fundamental feature of leaving the EU” in order to carve out free-trade agreements.

The European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has warned that the Britain’s access to the single market would be weakened if it diverged from Brussels’s rules.

But Mr Griffiths said that single-market rules were “designed primarily as a barrier to left-wing and progressive economic policies.”

Casting doubt on Mr Johnson’s post-Brexit intentions, Mr Griffiths said that only a left-led government would “be likely to use these new freedoms to take key industries and services into public ownership, provide state aid to industry and direct the movement of capital for investment in infrastructure and regional development.

“It remains to be seen what Mr Johnson will be prepared to bargain away in order to meet the concerns of the City of London and big business,” he said.

On Friday, Mr Johnson will deliver an address to the nation to mark the historic day more than three-and-a-half years after Britain voted to leave the EU.

Downing Street and Whitehall will be illuminated with a light display and union flags will line Parliament Square and the Mall. A new commemorative 50p coin to mark Brexit will enter circulation.

Travel firms are insisting that “everything will remain the same” for holiday-goers after Brexit.

Mark Tanzer, chief executive of travel trade organisation Abta, told the PA news agency that the transition period means there will be no changes when Britain leaves the EU at 11pm on Friday.

“Travellers will still be able to use their UK passport at EU gates at border check points for now, at least until the end of December 2020,” he said.

“Passports do, however, need to be valid for the whole of any trip.”