'Significant damage': How Brexit is still draining the UK economy 10 years later

Cover image: Pro-European Union campaigners hold flags near parliament during the weekly session of Prime Ministers Questions in London on May 20, 2026. © Kirsty Wigglesworth, AP

Ten years after Brexit, data shows that the decision to leave the European Union has made people in Britain up to 8 percent poorer. Experts predict the economic damage is set to continue, and YouGov polling now finds nearly 60 percent of Britons say it was wrong to leave the EU.

When the UK voted to leave the European Union on June 23, 2016, the close-run result dumbfounded many and kickstarted a climate of political tension in the UK that has become arguably worse ever since.