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For those of you not loving our Brexit reality at the moment, you might want to take note of what Romano Prodi had to say this week. The former President of the European Commission believes that it won’t be too long before the UK rejoins the EU.
On Thursday, Prodi gave a keynote speech at the the UCL Centre for Finance in London. Inevitably, the B-word was mentioned – despite the aversion to it from many British politicians – and the Italian gave an honest assessment about how he sees Brexit progressing.
Not very far, it seems. He is adamant that Britain will, by 2039 at the latest, reverse Brexit and come back to the trading bloc it first joined in the 1970s. Prodi is sticking to his guns, and just after the referendum result, he predicted that it would take ’20 years’. The clock is ticking…
“At the time of the Brexit referendum in 2016, I was betting that in about 20 years or so, the UK would come back to the European Union. And now, I am betting that in only 15 years, the UK will return to the EU again!” | Romano Prodi
Prodi seems much more optimistic about the chances of rejoin than the current Labour government does. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been keen to stress that there will be ‘no going back’ under his administration, insisting that Brexit is here to stay.
Sir Keir has, however, sought to strengthen British ties with the European Union, visiting nations such as Spain and Germany to iron out individual deals with each nation. This ‘reset’ approach toes the diplomatic line, but it is yet to compensate for the cost of our divorce bill.
Last week, it was revealed that the UK has paid an eye-watering £24 billion in costs associated with leaving the European Union. That’s slightly bigger than the so-called ‘black hole’ in the Treasury’s finances, and a further £6 billion payment is owed within the next few years.
Here’s hoping the EU leave the porch light on for us…
