Cliff Mitchell - 18/11/2021

Brexit Isn't Working


Brexit isn’t working for you, for any of us, anywhere in the UK, and it’s getting worse.

New trade deals negotiated since Brexit will, according to the government's own figures, only deliver between £3 and £7 per person in economic benefits over the next 15 years, while the loss due to Brexit is over £1,250 per person – that’s a loss of more than 178 times the most optimistic prediction for the benefits. (1)

Three out of four UK high-street firms have been hit by Brexit-related supply issues (2) and, according to the Office for National Statistics (2), 17% of adults said they have been unable to buy essential food items in the last few weeks – that’s 8 million people (3). Supermarkets are using cardboard cut-outs of fruit and veg to hide the shortage of supply. (4)

Every corner of the UK is feeling the pain of Brexit. Wales is to get only £46 million of funding to replace the £375 it received each year from the EU (5); Scotland will lose £14 million in student exchange funding compared to the EU’s Erasmus+ scheme (6), while in Northern Ireland, support for the Good Friday Agreement is being withdrawn by some in the Loyalist communities (7).

Cornwall may get less than £3 million from the government to replace the £100 million it could have received from the EU (8), and development spending in the poorest areas of the UK has been cut by nearly £2 billion over the next three years, despite the government’s promise to match lost EU funding (9).

The trade deal with New Zealand is another slap in the face for the UK fishing industry, already devastated by the loss of its major EU market (10), while British farmers are having to slash production, throw perfectly good food into landfill, and may have to cull hundred of thousands of pigs (12), and this is before we fully implement the border controls repeatedly postponed after Brexit (11).

Brexit isn’t working for you, for any of us, anywhere in the UK, and it’s getting worse.

(1) https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-trade-deals-australia-new-zealand-b1952442.html
(2) https://www.thenational.scot/news/19697294.brexit-three-four-uk-high-street-firms-hit-supply-issues-poll-finds/
(3) https://news.sky.com/story/food-shortages-eight-million-britons-unable-to-buy-essential-food-items-in-last-fortnight-ons-survey-suggests-12429058
(4) https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/oct/22/supermarkets-using-cardboard-cutouts-to-hide-gaps-left-by-supply-issues?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
(5) https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/politics/community-renewal-fund-brexit-eu-22056209
(6) https://www.thenational.scot/news/19700047.scotland-receives-14m-less-post-brexit-exchange-scheme/
(7) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-56276653
(8) https://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/19571108.cornwall-get-just-3m-replacement-funding-leaving-eu/
(9) https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-development-fund-level-up-b1946372.html
(10) https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/10/22/new-zealand-trade-deal-another-nail-coffin-uk-mussels-industry/
(11) https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/brexit-food-supply-shortage-farming-b1943328.html
(12) https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/britain-facing-mass-cull-pigs-due-butcher-shortage-2021-09-30/

 

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