Brexit Turns to Bregret as the Economic Consequences are Felt Across the United Kingdom

Brexit has turned to Bregret across the United Kingdom [UK]. A new YouGov.UK poll found that 56% of Britons now regret leaving the European Union [EU] against 31% who still think it was a good idea. Moreover, only 9% of respondents think it's been a success. And, most of the 31% who still think it was a good idea to leave the EU blame the Tories for screwing it up.

Speaking on Newsnight last week, former UKIP and Reform UK leader, and arch-Brexiteer Nigel Farage admitted that “Brexit has failed… we’ve not delivered on Brexit and the Tories have let us down very, very badly.”

New economic data explains the sour mood in the UK.

Atlantic: "Britain is expected to be the worst performing of the world’s 20 biggest economies this year. The British government’s official forecaster predicts that after-inflation household incomes will decline by an average of 7.1 percent over the three years ending in spring 2024. On the present trajectory, Britain will not return to 2019 levels of disposable income until 2027. By 2024, the average British household will likely have a lower living standard than the average household in Slovenia. On present trends, the average British household will be poorer than the average in Poland by 2030."

Conservatives blame the pandemic for Britain's problems, but the UK's economic malaise can't be explained by COVID alone. Italy suffered more deaths during the pandemic than any other major European country but its economy bounced back to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2021.

As predicted by most economists during the Brexit debate in 2016, the UK is paying a steep price for leaving the European Union.

CNNBusiness.com: "Brexit has erected trade barriers for UK businesses and foreign companies that used Britain as a European base. It’s weighing on imports and exports, sapping investment and contributing to labor shortages. All this has exacerbated Britain’s inflation problem, hurting workers and the business community."

“The most plausible reason as to why Britain is doing comparatively worse than comparable countries is Brexit,” according to L. Alan Winters, co-director of the Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy at the University of Sussex."

Illuminate: "Brexit has snarled the economy in mountains of import-export red tape, "driven the desire for Scottish independence, tanked British exports [see here], reduced the available labor force [see here, here, here and here, and led to shortages throughout the economy. The whole thing was an amazingly bad idea."

As one might expect, the failure of Brexit will have political consequences for those that championed the plan. A recent Ipsos.UK opinion survey found that the Conservatives/Tories now trail The British Labor Party by almost 20 points, and that 2 in 3 Britons expect the Labor Party to win most MPs in the next general election.

By: Don Lam & Curated Content

#brexit #economics