Neither the Conservatives nor the Labor is ready for a renegotiation of the exit agreement of the European Union, despite its proven negative effects on the economy.
By Cécile Ducourieux (London, correspondent)
After two years of Omerta, Brexit is again invited to the heart of the British debate. Experts and the media openly criticize its negative effects on the UK economy. Public opinion also moves: on the set of “question time”, the flagship program of the BBC or at the microphone of the very popular Radio LBC, the listeners multiply criticism against divorce with the European Union (EU). According to a survey by the Yougov Institute published on November 17, 56 % of respondents believe that the country “was wrong to leave the EU” December 31, 2020.
However, pronouncing the “B Word” (the Brexit word) remains taboo among the conservatives, even moderate. The management of the Labor Party also remains in denial, while, a priori, criticizing the toies promoters of a “hard” Brexit with the appearance of historical error could make it earn points. Keir Starmer, his leader, is content to advocate a vague improvement in the terms of the post-Brexit trade agreement concluded in 2020 between the former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the EU.
The presentation on November 17 by the Rishi Sunak government of an austerity budget in an attempt to restore the country’s financial credibility (after the catastrophic episode of the “minibudget” of Liz Truss) dismissed the languages. On this occasion, the Office of budgetary responsibility estimated that the standard of living of the British was going to collapse by 7 % in the next two years. This independent government body specified that Brexit “had a significant negative impact” on British foreign trade, the drop in exchanges stood at 15 % in the long term.
Economy to the penalty
This observation had been masked by the brutal slowdown in exchanges due to the pandemic. The “hard” Brexit chosen by the Conservatives in 2019, accompanied by an exit from the European internal market, implies the appearance of customs barriers with the EU, the country’s first trading partner. The forecasts of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) also accelerated awareness: in 2023, the British economy will be most worth all those in the G20 (with the exception of Russia) .
Faced with this avalanche of bad news, the management of the CBI, the British employers’ union, has, through the voice of its boss, Tony Banker, called on political leaders “to put their divisions aside” and to “improve” Brexit agreement. Mr. Banker claimed that the government facilitates controlled immigration, in reverse of what Brexiters advocate, and that it renounces the “Retrained Eu Law Bill”, a bill aimed at suppressing national law thousands of texts inherited from European law.
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