Tories in North Somerset celebrated Brexit today (February 1) by having breakfast at a Wetherspoon's pub with the personal blessing of boss Tim Martin.
Around 50 members of the North Somerset Conservative Association visited the Posset Cup in Portishead this morning.
Organiser David Pasley, 74, said he contacted the JD Wetherspoon founder - a prominent Brexit supporter - to let him know about the celebratory meal.
Mr Pasley told Bristol Live: "To my utter astonishment he replied within 10 minutes and he called me David and said he was delighted we were going to Wetherspoon's and he hoped we had a good time."
The UK ended its 47 years of EU membership at 11pm yesterday (January 31).
As a way of marking the event, Mr Pasley and his fellow Conservatives dined in the pub on Harbour Road at 8.30am today.
Mr Pasley, a former North Somerset councillor, described the atmosphere as "very positive".
He said: "I took along about 10 Union Jacks on a stick just to stick on our table to say that we were officially celebrating Brexit, although we were conscious we didn't want to offend anybody.
"We didn't want to be too triumphalist, but people in the pub were smiling and saying congratulations and things like that."
Reyna Knight, 83, another former councillor, was among those who attended the two-hour event.
"It's going to be an exciting future and we've always been a nation who, if things have been a bit tough, we will get through it - we always do," she said.
Asked why she voted to leave the EU, she said: "I think we joined because we wanted a common market and then suddenly it was not a common market - it became rules, regulations and laws that were thrust upon us."
Mr Pasley revealed he had also voted to join the common market in 1973, but he too went on to develop disapproval of the EU.
The Portishead resident said: "I just think when an organisation gets that big it can easily become corrupt.
"And although I have no evidence of corruption, it seems to me to be a massive waste of money."
Mr Pasley said he had never visited a Wetherspoon's before, but he told Bristol Live he thoroughly enjoyed a meal of eggs Benedict and smoked salmon, with a pint of IPA.
"We were just absolutely flabbergasted by the prices of the breakfasts," he said approvingly.
