British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has defended Brexit, insisting that leaving the European Union had brought significant achievements and offered a "huge opportunity," three years after the withdrawal agreement came into force.
"In the three years since leaving the EU, we've made huge strides in harnessing the freedoms unlocked by Brexit to tackle generational challenges," Sunak said in a statement to mark Tuesday's three-year anniversary since the country formally left the EU.
The PM said Brexit was a "huge opportunity to deliver" on his priorities of growth, employment and social mobility.
The prime minister, who will mark 100 days in office this week, said the UK had "forged a path as an independent nation with confidence" and "that momentum hasn't slowed".
He pointed to achievements including Europe's fastest vaccine rollout, trade deals with 70 countries and "taking back control of our borders".
Jargon, jibberish and Northern Ireland
Sunak faces numerous challenges, with thousands of UK workers planning strike action to protest the impact of soaring inflation on salaries, as the cost-of-living crisis hits millions.
The prime minister made no mention of the problems in Northern Ireland where no satisfactory post-Brexit trade agreements has been reached, despite months of negotiations between London and Brussels.
A YouGov poll last week found 63 percent of voters think the government is handling the issue of Brexit badly.
A poll of opinion polls suggests that 57 percent of people in the UK would now vote for a return to Europe.
In a jargon-heavy statement, Sunak said progress had been made in "a range of key growth areas".
He cited economic reforms including the opening of free ports that exist outside normal tax and customs territory, as well as regulatory reforms to the financial sector.
Sunak also enthused about legislation currently before parliament which will scrap EU regulations automatically retained post-Brexit and establish a new system of business subsidies without "unnecessary EU bureaucracy".
Lies and a complete disaster
In an interview on BBC Radio 4, Guy Hands, a City figure and prominent donor to Sunak's Conservative Party, says Brexit has been a "complete disaster".
“The reality is it’s been a lose-lose situation for us and Europe. Europe has lost more but we’ve lost as well. And it was just a bunch of complete and total lies.
“The British population was never going to accept a state in which the National Health Service (NHS) would be demolished, where free education would be severely limited, where regulation with regard to employment would be blown apart. It was just complete and total absolute lies.”
Hands added: “The biggest issue about it, and you can take the Brexit bus as a good example, is the lies that Boris Johnson and the Conservative party told about the NHS. In fact what they did was throw the country and the NHS under the bus.”
