‘People voted for this?’ Graph of Brexit trade makes grim viewing

Businesses have slammed post-Brexit trading rules, reported The Guardian.

One described life outside the trading bloc as “the same nightmare week after week”.

It comes as Natalie Elphicke was fuming about the traffic queues in Dover but didn’t seem to think Brexit had anything to do with it.

Now the Government has been using some of its post-Brexit freedoms” to hire airport staff quickly.

It comes amid severe delays across UK airports ahead of the Platinum Jubilee weekend and the half-term holidays.

Arts minister Lord Parkinson acknowledged that cancelled flights and long queues at UK airports are “causing a lot of distress for people, particularly in half-term”.

He continued: “We’ve been using some of our post-Brexit freedoms to make sure that people can be hired more quickly, but this is something the industry… some of the regulations can be met, but be met speedily, but we’ve been saying to the industry for quite some time, they should have been preparing for this.

Red tape

Returning to exporting trade issues Mark Brearley, who runs Kaymet, which makes tea trolleys and other kitchen equipment, said both the cost and red tape involved in the exporting of goods to the EU has increased.

He said that a large proportion of his time is spent with “things going wrong” and that the EU feels like “the hardest place in the world to ship things to sometimes.”

Official figures show that UK exports to the EU remain significantly below pre-Brexit levels, despite some recovery from an initial plunge in January 2021 at the end of the transition period.

Some sectors have suffered a more dramatic hit than others. Exports of clothing and footwear to the EU are both down by almost 60% compared with 2018. Meat exports have plunged by almost 25%, vegetables and fruit by 40%, while car exports are down by more than a quarter.

This map from the article has gone viral on social media, showing how UK exporters have fallen behind global competitors since Brexit.