Truth to Power: Cost of Living Crisis: Brexit Identified as a Major Factor

Apr 2, 2022 • Every serious independent economist argued that massively raising barriers with your main trade partner is an extraordinary act of self-harm. And now, 6 years too late, the extreme right-wing Brexit backing Express newspaper last week carried the headline “Brexit blamed as UK exports drop 14% – Britain 'missing out' on global trade”. Eventhough the article went on to trumpet the world-beating amount of trade deals the UK has struck, it concluded by reporting the Office of Budget Responsibility statement that Brexit has meant a 14% drop in exports, and also reported economist Gabriella Dickens’ comment that UK export growth would remain sluggish “as UK exporters continued “to be slowly cut out of global supply chains, due to the extra administrative burden for EU firms of sourcing goods from Britain”. As every single day seems to bring a new reminder of how stupid an idea Brexit was, is there now a widespread acceptance that every one of those economists was right, and that Brexit is a contributing factor to the current cost of living crisis?