Downing Street Suggests It Is Too Difficult To Assess Whether Brexit Has Been A Success So Far

Boris Johnson believes leaving the EU will deliver "massive benefits" despite the lack of government analysis, a Number 10 spokesman said.
The UK voted to leave the EU in 2016.
The UK voted to leave the EU in 2016.
Richard Baker via Getty Images

Assessing whether Brexit has been a success so far is too difficult because of “global issues” such as Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine, Downing Street has suggested.

The UK voted to leave the European Union six years ago, and formally left the bloc at the start of 2020.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the minister for Brexit opportunities, last week said the government will not carry out its own assessment into whether quitting the EU has been a good thing for the country.

He also dismissed reports suggesting Brexit had harmed the UK economy as “the regurgitation of Project Fear”.

A Number 10 spokesman today insisted Boris Johnson believes there will be “massive benefits” to leaving the European Union.

However, he said determining the economic impact of Brexit “wouldn’t be an easy thing to do”.

“It’s obvious that since we’ve left the European Union we’ve had a pandemic and there’s been the war in Europe so assessing the impact as of now isn’t something that would be straightforward to do,” he said.

But he was unable to say whether any analysis would be carried out after the international disruption ceases or whether it had already been performed but was being disputed by ministers.

Asked by HuffPost UK last week how voters are supposed to assess whether Brexit has been worth it, Rees-Mogg said: “I’ve always thought it’s all about democracy. Can you change your government, can you make decisions about how you are governed?

“That is the big and overwhelming advantage of Brexit, and then you come to the debate as to whether democracy also makes you more prosperous and I think it does and there’s a great deal of evidence for that.”

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