Brexit, five-years-on: Is the average UK citizen worse off because of the decision to leave the European Union

Slower economic growth, reduced trade and increased living costs compared to the EU have been cited as reasons.

Transcript

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.