London Mayor Sadiq Khan on Thursday will blame Brexit for costing the UK economy £140 billion ($178 billion), calling on the government to “urgently” rebuild relations with the European Union to stem the decline.
Britain’s EU divorce has also meant there are 2 million fewer jobs nationwide than there otherwise would have been, including 290,000 lost positions in London, according to research by Cambridge Econometrics commissioned by City Hall that the Labour Party’s Khan will reference in a speech at Mansion House. Half of the total job losses are in financial services and construction.
“The hard-line version of Brexit we’ve ended up with is dragging our economy down and pushing up the cost of living,” Khan will say, according to excerpts released by his office. “The cost of Brexit crisis can only be solved if we take a mature approach and if we are open to improving our trading arrangements with our European neighbors.”
Just think of all the trade agreements Britain has made now that it can independently negotiate! Why, the FTA with Australia alone increased GDP by checks notes 0.08%. Wait, that can’t be right. Surely the British public weren’t misled about any of this?
You know what’s closer to the UK than Australia?
Literally any European country.
In fact you can just drive goods into Britain from Europe or put them on a train instead of shipping/flying it from literally the other side of the world.