Slower economic growth, reduced trade and increased living costs compared to the EU have been cited as reasons.
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00:00There were a lot of predictions, and indeed there are still many kicking about, about
00:06what the long-term impact of Brexit is going to be. 2%, 3%, 4%, 5% by some bodies in terms
00:13of the overall economy. Now, of course, this is a time when we need the economy to be growing
00:17because there are lots of problems. And of course, we hear this particularly from the
00:20Labour government. Now, of course, the thing is, though, it has undoubtedly had an impact.
00:24There was a study by the London School of Economics which suggested that the impact
00:29in terms of exports and imports was of the order of 20 odd million for each of those,
00:35one slightly higher than the other. But nonetheless, it's big in round terms, but not actually
00:42dramatic in terms of the worst predictions. Now, of course, what does that mean? There's
00:46less money in this economy. The Labour government, who would like to have more money to spend
00:51on services, they have to find it from somewhere else. So undoubtedly, if we were to rejoin
00:56this over the year, which is not going to happen, not for the very, very simple future,
01:01there would be an uplift, I guess, in terms of trade. But for most people, I think they
01:05just get on with it. And of course, it doesn't occupy people's consciousness. We've moved
01:09on from it, as it were. Is the average person in the UK worse off because of Brexit, Steve?
01:17There is no doubt that people are collectively worse off. Now, whether they put it down to
01:21Brexit or not, it doesn't matter. We would have been a larger economy had we not
01:26left the EU in 2020, when we finally got out of the EU, because of course of the
01:35haven't ready deal. But of course, the fact is that's in the macro sense. Insofar as people
01:41have to work with what their incomes are, they probably feel, in some cases, worse off.
01:48But it would be down to other reasons, perhaps, or they'll put it down to other reasons. But
01:52of course, as I say, we're living in an economy which is sort of being shrunken as a consequence
01:56of sort of being outside of this trading bloc.