A decade after Britain voted to leave the European Union, the article argues that Brexit has become an economic and political failure, even after the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ukraine war, and Donald Trump’s return to the presidency reshaped the global backdrop. Recent polls show more than two-thirds of Britons would like to rejoin the EU, while nearly all the promises made during the referendum campaign have gone unfulfilled: regulation was not meaningfully cut, the country remains divided, immigration policy is described as worse than before, and promised money for the public sector did not materialize.
The piece says Brexit exposed Britain’s diminished economic weight outside the EU market. Growth potential has stalled, cost of living has risen, quality of life has fallen, productivity and investment have declined, and lower GDP has reduced government revenues, forcing higher taxes and cuts in infrastructure, research, and development spending. That broader weakness is reflected, the article says, in the dramatic resignation of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the sixth British leader to leave office in the past ten years.
Trade frictions have hit especially hard. British farmers and exporters now face sanitary checks, paperwork, and endless bureaucracy on shipments to Europe, making deliveries more expensive and less competitive. Large companies have had to assign whole teams to manage EU-UK trade, while smaller firms have abandoned the European market altogether. London, however, has remained the world’s second most important financial center because its services are largely digital and less vulnerable to tariffs.
The article concludes that Brexit has effectively created two Britains, London and the rest. Although unemployment has not collapsed the economy, the decade has brought sharp warnings: youth unemployment is up among people under 24 who are not in higher education, and wages have stagnated far behind rising housing costs and inflation. Economists and business leaders warn that rejoining the EU now could create new chaos, but many Britons argue that closer ties with Europe are becoming essential amid China’s rise, India’s growing dominance, and the unpredictability of Trump.
