The British do not yet seem to have come out of the Brexit debate. This is demonstrated by the numerous discussions, studies and declarations which take place in the United Kingdom on a daily basis. Latest resounding statement to date, that of the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. The latter called on Thursday for the United Kingdom to strengthen its ties with the European Union, accusing Brexit of having cost the British economy tens of billions of pounds.
In a press release, the Labor councilor maintains that a new agreement would “boost” the economy and help to “raise the living standards of the British”. According to a study commissioned from Cambridge Econometrics by London City Hall, Brexit has already cost the British economy 140 billion pounds (162 billion euros), including 30 billion pounds (35 billion euros) for the capital. .
Cambridge Econometrics also estimates that Brexit caused a loss of two million jobs in the country, including 300,000 in the capital. And the future does not seem very encouraging for the economy across the Channel: according to these same data, economic losses for the United Kingdom will amount to 300 billion pounds (350 billion euros) by to 2035 if nothing is done, including 60 billion pounds for London.
Opinions always differ
“We have to be honest, Brexit is not a peripheral concern that we can leave in the past. It is a key factor in the cost of living crisis caused by inflation, insists Sadiq Khan, candidate for a third term in the May municipal elections.
A position which contrasts with the reluctance of the main political parties, including his own, to discuss the repercussions of the 2016 referendum, a few months before the legislative elections for which Labor is largely in the lead. According to a poll carried out in December by the Opinium institute for the Sunday newspaper Observer, only 22% of Britons think that Brexit has had a positive effect on the country in general, a proportion which falls to 12% concerning the economy specifically.
A spokesperson for Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, however, retorted to the mayor of London that British economic activity had “experienced faster growth” than that of Italy and Germany since 2016. The government boasts for its shares the opportunities offered by leaving the European Union, celebrating the free trade agreements signed with countries like Australia or its membership of the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership.