Early evening summary
Downing Street has said that people will suffer “significant disruption” from mass strikes taking place tomorrow. In what is being described as the biggest day of industrial action for at least a decade, teachers, train drivers, civil servants, university lecturers, bus drivers and security guards all taking action. See 1.10pm.
Lord Frost, the former Brexit minister, has said that he is not surprised that people feel disappointed by what has been achieved since the UK left the EU three years ago today. (See 5.43pm.) The anniversary has prompted much comment on what has been achieved, with Tories who strongly supported it still talking up the advantages, but opinion polls showing that a majority of Britons now view it as a mistake. In his own statement on the anniversary, Rishi Sunak did not acknowledge any drawbacks, but was notably less upbeat about the potential gains than Boris Johnson and Liz Truss used to be when they were in Downing Street.
Lord Frost says he's 'not surprised' people disappointed by Brexit, and some Brexiters weren't 'honest' about its impact
Yesterday UnHerd published polling suggesting that in almost all parts of Britain people are more likely than not to think that Brexit was a mistake. As Freddie Sayers explains in his write-up, Boston and Skegness in Lincolnshire is the only parliamentary constituency where a majority of people disagree that the UK was wrong to leave the EU. He says:
Three years after we officially left the European Union, respondents were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement, “Britain was wrong to leave the EU”.
The headline result suggests the country has dramatically changed its view since 2019. Focaldata estimates that in every constituency in the country except three, more people agree with the statement than disagree — i.e. tend to think that Brexit was a mistake. The only three outliers are all located along the Wash in Lincolnshire: Louth and Horncastle, Boston and Skegness and South Holland and the Deepings. Of these, only Boston has more people disagreeing than agreeing: it is the only place in the country which doesn’t feel regretful about Brexit.
Startling polling from @Unherd, on the eve of the 3rd anniversary of Brexit. In all 650 UK constituencies apart from three (all in Lincolnshire), more people now agree than disagree that Brexit was a mistake. Biggest movement in left leaning areas.https://t.co/tkb239vrTl pic.twitter.com/hZnu3NuAZl
— Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) January 30, 2023
Lord Frost, who was Boris Johnson’s chief negotiator for the Brexit deal and then served as Brexit minister in 2021, has given an interview to the News Agents podcast and he said he was not surprised people were disappointed by what had happened since the UK left the EU. Asked about the UnHerd poll, he said:
I’m not surprised that people feel a bit disappointed with what’s happened over the last two or three years. I think the government hasn’t done as much as they could to push forwards the benefits, to get growth coming back to the economy and so on, has made a few mistakes.
And I think what we’re seeing in that poll is not regret about the decision but regret about what we’ve made of it so far, but that is still in our hands, and it’s still can be changed and I hope the government will.
Frost also said that some Brexiters had not been honest about the economic impact of Brexit. He said:
I always said that there would be a small trade effect from Brexit and a lot of Brexiteers have not been honest enough to acknowledge that. I always have.
But I also believe that domestic reform and change and productivity growth is going to take us beyond that.
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