Someone should get this framed and send it to Downing Street. The dizzying, eye-watering costs of Brexit have been summarised in a front-page splash for the ages – with The Independent listing 12 stats that summarise our sobering reality.
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Front-page splash exposes Brexit damage
This month marks five years since the UK officially pulled out of the EU, with an ‘oven-ready’ deal that looks more ‘half-baked’ with each passing day. The decision to vote leave during the 2016 referendum has hit the nation’s finances, exports, and trade.
Despite seeking a ‘reset’ with the EU, Keir Starmer’s softly-softly approach doesn’t seem to scratch the surface when it comes to addressing the deep-rooted problems caused by Brexit. And yet, there’s no sign of Labour looking to change course.
The nitty-gritty of these statistics is something of a stomach-churner…
Leaving the EU: What has it cost the UK?
The top-line costs alone expose the raw deal we’ve ended up with. The so-called divorce settlement from the Union tops £30 billion, and the loss in goods exports stands at £27 billion. UK food exports are estimated to have decreased by £2.8 billion annually.
Businesses have also been hit terribly. Up to 56% of dairy producers are struggling to find workers (as per an Arla survey). According to the Marine Management Organisation, seafood exports have dropped by 118,000 tonnes in the UK since 2019.
Over 16,000 companies with European customers have simply stopped exporting to the bloc. There’s also been a dramatic spike in immigration, and although 1.2 million EU nationals have left the UK in the wake of Brexit, net migration has soared by 2.3 million.
In fact, Brexit’s biggest promise was to control immigration – but we’ve ended up here. In total, 3.6 million immigrants have entered Britain since the freedom of movement laws were curtailed. Meanwhile, EU students at UK universities have fallen by a third.
And, we finish with a couple of show-stoppers. Both the public and the Office for Budget Responsibility believe Brexit is harming the country. Six in 10 voters say it has gone badly, and the OBR recently declared that UK trade will take a direct hit of 15%