THERE are 1.8 million fewer jobs in the UK than there would have been without Brexit, according to new analysis commissioned by the Labour mayor of London.
The UK economy is also 6% smaller than it would have been in the EU – costing £140 billion annually, according to the independent work from Cambridge Econometrics.
The analysis commissioned by Sadiq Khan’s City Hall further said that the average Brit was around £2000 worse off than they would be if Remain had won the 2016 referendum.
In a speech after the analysis was published and dividing himself from Labour leader Keir Starmer’s pro-Brexit stance, Khan will say: “Rather than politicians dodging or ducking this issue, it’s incumbent on all of us to have an honest and mature discussion about the best way forward.
“Because the hardline version of Brexit we’ve ended up with is dragging our economy down and pushing up the cost of living.”
The SNP said the news showed Laura re "split on Brexit, despite their London mayor offering up hard evidence today of the devastating consequences of leaving the EU for both the economy and for jobs”.
Alyn Smith, the party’s Europe spokesperson at Westminster, went on: “Keir Starmer refuses to even consider returning to EU membership, or even engage on the prospect of rejoining the single market – costing the Scottish economy billions.
“Scotland overwhelmingly voted to remain in the EU, but we were dragged out against our will and now households and businesses across Scotland are suffering the consequences.
“It is only the SNP who are offering Scotland a route back to re-joining the European Union and the single market.”
According to the commissioned work by Cambridge Econometrics, the UK’s annual economic output is currently at around £2.2 trillion. It estimated that a “counterfactual UK” which never went through Brexit would have an annual economic output of £2.34trn – £140bn higher.
It further said that, by 2035, the economic damage will have grown if the UK remains outside the single market – as Starmer has committed to keeping it.
The report estimated that real Gross Value Added (GVA) – a measure of economic output – would be around 10.1% (£311bn) lower than it would have been without Brexit.
It further found that London, where Khan is in power, is more resilient to the impacts of Brexit than other parts of the UK, where they have been felt more keenly.
This was due to the high number of service-based companies in the UK capital, compared to manufacturing, farming, and other industry elsewhere.
Khan (above) is set to call for a “new settlement” with the EU to “turbocharge our economy and help raise living standards” in a speech to the London Government Dinner at Mansion House on Thursday evening.
He will also warn that there has been a slide towards populism in UK and European politics.
Speaking to The Sunday National last month, Alison Young, the Sir David Williams Professor of Public Law at the University of Cambridge, said she had noted increasingly populism in the UK since the Brexit vote.
The incoming law commissioner said: “I think we've been seeing [an erosion of checks on governmental power] for a very long time, but what really struck me about the post-Brexit constitution was the extent to which this was being almost lauded as a good thing."
