Brexit is costing the UK up to £90bn in lost tax revenues every year, according to new analysis.
This week, Rachel Reeves delivered her autumn budget in which she announced £26bn in tax rises.
And whilst critics and opponents have been quick to attack the chancellor for this, it can’t be ignored that one of the main reasons for these decisions is the disastrous impact Brexit has had on our economy.
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This has been laid bare by a new analysis from the House of Commons library, which estimates that leaving the European Union is costing the Treasury up to £90bn a year in lost tax revenue.
The analysis, commissioned by the Lib Dems, also found that the average Briton has seen a hit to GDP per head of between £2,700 and £3,700, the Independent reports.
Speaking before the budget, Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said Brexit is “why we have the highest taxes ever, that is why we have sky-high bills, that is why we have a cost of living crisis.”
He urged Labour to drop its red lines and negotiate a new customs union with the EU, to “fix our broken relationship with Europe”.
After the budget was announced, Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper said it was time “to be honest about the damage Brexit has done.”
Sir Nick Harvey, chief executive of European Movement UK, said Rachel Reeves would have faced “very different choices this week if the UK hadn’t mangled its ties to its biggest trading partner.”
He continued: “The red tape and uncertainty of the past nine years have hit every single one of us in the pocket.
“This new analysis from the House of Commons Library shows just how much economic harm leaving the EU has wreaked on us both nationally and individually. Billions lost in tax every year, and all of us several thousand pounds poorer.
“Public opinion is now clear – Brexit has been an unmitigated disaster for the UK’s economy. It’s time for the government to fully acknowledge the ongoing harm leaving the EU has done, and to revisit its ‘red lines’, to start to breathe some life back into the UK’s finances.”
Earlier this month, a study from respected American think tank, the National Bureau of Economic Research, found that leaving the EU had resulted in the UK’s GDP being between 6 per cent and 8 per cent smaller than it could have been.
As per their figures, the UK’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) had fallen by as much as 8% from where it should be since 2016, with the impact ‘accumulating gradually’ as the years have gone by. Investment into the country is also estimated to have dropped sharply, by roughly 12-18%.
Along with this, both employment and productivity have also been severely hampered, with each data set estimated to have been reduced by 3-4% from previous projections within the last decade or so – which might go a long way towards explaining the general malaise Britain is experiencing.