Stefan Rousseau/PA
The UK has still not managed to cope with Brexit despite hiring 100,000 extra civil servants since the EU referendum to cope with the extra demands, a new report has found.
A study by think tank UK in a Changing Europe has found that the British government has failed to find a coherent plan to deal with the EU exit eight years after the vote to leave.
The report states that Brexit was a major factor in the hiring of 100,000 extra civil servants to take over functions and responsibilities from the EU.
But notes that, with changing ministers and political turbulence, the government has failed to come up with a strategic vision that allows them to successfully deliver Brexit.
There are frictions with devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which have to devise new policies from scratch.
New regulatory watchdogs in the fields of environmental protection, food standards and trade are also struggling with a lack of resources and threats to their independence.
The report was compiled following a series of interviews with figures inside and outside government and Senior Research Fellow Jill Rutter said the government has suffered from a lack of direction.
“That vacuum means that the shape of the post-Brexit state is only now beginning to emerge piecemeal through unconnected decisions often forced by external constraints,” the report said.
The study found that in important areas like chemicals, farm payments and digital markets, the UK is moving much more slowly than the EU.
There are still issues such as the status of 2.8 million EU and EEA nationals, the new farm payments scheme, delays to the imposition of full checks by British border authorities and the implementation of new product standard marks.
The report concludes that five years on from former prime minister Boris Johnson’s pledge to get Brexit done whoever wins the next general election will still face a lot of unfinished business.
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