Britain’s economic woes fuel discontent with Brexit a decade after historic vote to leave EU

LONDON (AP) — Simon Boyd’s firm produces prefabricated steel structures on England’s south coast and ships them to customers as far away as Ghana and Barbados. Mike Hawes represents Britain’s car manufacturers as chairman of the Motor Manufacturers and Traders Association.

When Britain voted to leave the European Union in 2016, business leaders were on different sides of the debate. However, 10 years later, they were both disappointed with this decision. Brexit.

A decade ago, supporters promised Brexit would be the key to a bright new future in which Britain, freed from the edicts of EU bureaucrats, would regain control of its own laws and borders and the economy would boom. But the facts have failed to live up to this misleading misconception as Britain struggles to adjust to life without unrestricted access to the 27-nation free trade bloc and its market of 450 million people.

Economic growth is stagnant, taxes are high, public services are disrupted and successive governments have failed to stem the flow of migrants washing up on the Channel coast in inflatable boats. All in all, this isn’t exactly a happy anniversary.

“No, it hasn’t delivered everything it said would be delivered in the box, but it does deliver,” Boyd told The Associated Press. “It’s too slow. You just have to look at the statistics to see that.”

Boyd, managing director of REIDSteel, Around 130 people working at a factory in Christchurch, England, still stand by their decision to support Brexit but blame politicians who have not committed to being accountable for the lackluster results. Boyd said that Britain has also faced unexpected challenges in the last 10 years, from the Covid-19 epidemic to the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Economists see fundamental problems

Brexit vote skyrockets costs for businesses preparing for an uncertain future During years of negotiations over Britain’s new relationship with the EU. Then, when the UK finally left the bloc on January 31, 2020, new rules governing trade in goods and services made doing business with European partners more expensive and time-consuming.

Creon Butler, who directs the global economics and finance program at Chatham House, a London-based think tank, said leaving the European single market would have long-term consequences.

“Whatever was promised, whatever was hoped for, you must recognize that our choice to leave was a great loss of wealth and prosperity for us,” he said.

“This is a decision made by the British people and they have every right to make it, but it makes us poorer,” he added.

By many measures, the British economy is weaker today than it would have been without Brexit, according to a recent report published by the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The report, compiled by researchers in the UK, Germany and the US, compares the performance of the UK economy with that of 33 other countries, including its European neighbors the US, Canada and Japan.

The researchers concluded that Brexit cut Britain’s gross domestic product, a broad measure of economic output, by 6% to 8%, investment by 12% to 13%, and productivity by 3% to 4%.

Automakers faced many challenges

Britain’s automakers were early and outspoken opponents of Brexit, arguing that increased bureaucracy around shipping parts and finished vehicles would harm an industry built on a network of interconnected factories in many European countries.

These concerns reduced investment in the UK car industry because international car manufacturers were less likely to see Britain as an attractive way to enter the European market. As a result, the industry hopes that international trade agreements will help increase demand for its products.

“We’ve been able to move with the times, so to speak, but it undoubtedly puts us into more costs, more pressure on the industry,” Hawes said.

Brexit supporters tout freedom Negotiating its own trade deals is one of the main benefits of leaving the EU, and the UK has since signed dozens of deals with countries from Australia to India to the US.

But EU countries still account for 41% of Britain’s exports and half of its imports, according to the latest government figures.

As a member of the EU and its predecessors for more than 50 years, many British businesses have come to rely on Europe as a source of cheap labour, especially after the bloc’s eastward expansion in 2004.

That pipeline dried up after Brexit ended the free movement of labor that was one of the bloc’s founding principles.

Owners of curry restaurants in Britain, an integral part of communities from Aberdeen in Scotland to Aberystwyth in Wales, have been hit particularly hard by the loss of Eastern European workers returning home rather than dealing with burdensome new visa requirements. And they are furious that the industry backed Brexit after assurances it would lead to more visas for South Asian chefs, which did not happen.

“We feel betrayed,” said Oli Khan, president of the Bangladesh Food Suppliers Association UK, who serves tandoori lamb chops, vegetable biryani and a chilli plate at his restaurant in Stevenage, north London.

In order to alleviate some of the problems caused by Brexit, Prime Minister Keir Starmer Started negotiations with the EU rebuilding a closer relationship is trying to revive the country’s stagnant economy.

Polls show growing disillusionment with Brexit

Starmer’s move comes as a survey by polling firm Ipsos, King’s College London Institute of Politics and think tank Britain in a Changing Europe suggested that disillusionment with Brexit was growing.

The May survey of 2,245 Britons aged 18 and over found that 48% said Brexit was going worse than they expected, up from 28% in March 2021. About 9% said it went better than expected, while about a third said it went as expected.

But Boyd said the most important poll was still the one on June 23, 2016, in which 51.9 percent of those who voted (17.4 million people) voted to leave the EU.

He continues to believe that Britain has a brighter future outside the EU.

Boyd said Brexit failed to deliver on its promise because politicians, big corporations and other entrenched interests were working to thwart the will of the people. He said this had resulted in a Brexit deal that kept Britain too closely tied to the EU and failed to realize its potential as an entrepreneurial country full of creative, hard-working people.

And there’s no turning back, he said.

“Imagine… if we rejoined today. The conditions under which we would be allowed to return would be akin to us reboarding the Titanic, provided we surrender our life jackets first,” he said. “Do I need to say more?”