James O'Brien: UK has 'ankles tied together' thanks to Brexit
6 April 2022, 14:25
'It's as if we've entered a really difficult race, and deliberately tied out ankles together!'
James O'Brien argued the Government have 'deliberately tied our ankles together' with Brexit, damaging Britain's ability to deal with the worst cost-of-living crisis for 50 years.
Families are facing the biggest fall in real incomes since the 1970s, contributed to by coronavirus and the Ukraine crisis.
Referring to the UK's EU exit, James said: "The B word can't really be mentioned. We've got a form of national myopia on this.
"We're even worse off than we would be if we were only dealing with global price increase, the situation in Ukraine and global politics.
"It's as if we have entered a really difficult race, and deliberately tied our ankles together."
Despite the impact Brexit has had, James argued it's being downplayed by the Labour Party and UK media.
He said: "I don't know why the Labour Party don't mention it more.
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"The political environment is such, newspaper led, Boris Johnson inflamed, that we don't talk about it.
"However bad things are, the boat on which Boris Johnson sailed into Downing Street is going to make it worse!"
Britain formally left the EU in January 2020, then the European Single Market the following December under Boris Johnson's Brexit deal.
There is already evidence this has had a dramatic impact on UK trade.
According to Centre for European Reform calculations, Britain's trade in goods was 15.7% lower in October 2021 than it would have been without Brexit.
In 2021, 52% of the UK's trade was with non-EU countries, whereas previously EU trade predominated.
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