The Express appears to have changed its tone on Brexit on the back of brutal data from the Bank of England.
Despite the best efforts of Liz Truss to reforge the trade deals the UK held as an EU member, the country’s trading prospects have shrunk outside the bloc, much to the surprise of the Brexit-backing paper.
Seemingly overlooking their coverage at the time of the referendum, Liam Doyle wrote:
“BREXIT, according to its backers, was meant to create endless opportunities. So far, however, the UK has failed to make the vote profitable, with the prospect of “global Britain” quickly fading according to recent data.”
At the start of the month, the Bank of England released data showing the UK’s trading habits over the last 24 years.
The data shows at the turn of the millennium, the UK was nearly on par with the rest of the bloc, as each reported trade worth between 50 and 60 per cent of GDP.
But a vast chasm opened after 2011 when the EU started growing at a much more exponential rate, and this became even more pronounced between 2019 and 2021.
When Brits voted for Brexit in 2016, the UK’s trade flows sat at around 58 percent and the EU’s at 72 per cent, the Express notes.
But that has now completely collapsed while the “EU thrives”.
Who’d a thought it!
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