Brits are starting to think again about Brexit as the economy slides into recession – By Elliot Smith (CNBC) / Nov 23, 2022
- The main opposition Labour party on Tuesday ruled out a return to the EU’s single market or customs union if it wins the next general election.
- The OECD forecast on Tuesday that only Russia would suffer a bigger economic contraction than the U.K. in 2023 among the G-20 leading developed and developing economies.
- A frequent YouGov survey earlier this month showed that 56% of the population said Britain was “wrong” to vote to leave the EU in 2016, compared to 32% who said it was the right call.
LONDON — As evidence mounts of the long-term harm being inflicted on the U.K. economy by Brexit, the government is coming under pressure to acknowledge the elephant in the room.
Despite criticizing the Conservative government’s fiscal plans as the U.K. economy faces a recession and the sharpest fall in living standards since records began, the country’s main opposition Labour party on Tuesday ruled out a return to the EU’s single market or customs union if it wins the next general election — due no later than January 2025.
Labour leader Keir Starmer told a business conference that the party would instead “make Brexit work,” but economists have suggested that either or both of these measures would help to cushion the blow to the country’s long-term economic growth prospects.
The government has avoided addressing the impact of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal, with ministers attributing the country’s economic headwinds solely to the energy crisis arising from Russia’s war in Ukraine, and lingering effects from the Covid-19 pandemic.
