Brexit works, and anyone who says it has hit the economy and trade has an ax, said former Brexit negotiator David Frost on the sixth anniversary of the UK’s vote to leave the EU.
Lord Frost stopped painting “solar hills” but said official data used to predict a 4% drop in production caused by Brexit were “zombie” numbers based on academic research from former communist countries, not of facts.
“These studies have mainly looked at the effects of opening up poorly run former communist and former authoritarian autarchic economies, where opening up leads to huge improvements in the political regime as a whole and where profits come from these broader improvements than just trade,” he said. .
His comments come a day after a report from the Resolution Foundation’s think tank said Brexit was hurting the competitiveness of UK exports and exacerbating the cost of living crisis for households. This was rejected by Brexit Minister of Opportunities Jacob Rees-Mogg as “regurgitation of” fear of the project “.
Frost said on Thursday: “The view that Brexit is hitting us economically and commercially is generated by those who have an ax to grind, and cannot be supported by any objective analysis of the figures. The United Kingdom has grown at the same pace as other G7 countries since the referendum and, according to ONS, exports of goods to the EU are at their highest ever.
He said the picture of 2020 was clouded by trade disruptions caused by the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the supply chain crisis. It may never be possible to determine the impact of Brexit alone, he told the UK’s annual conference on the changing Europe.
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In a wide-ranging keynote speech as the EU threw its arms around Ukraine and Moldova with a plan to grant them candidate status, Frost asked how long Brussels would continue to “try and lecture” us. He suggested that if the EU wanted stronger relations with the United Kingdom, it would have to correct its behavior in Northern Ireland and beyond.
Frost also questioned why the UK government did not threaten to trigger Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol when it unveiled draft legislation repealing the Brexit agreements last week. “I am somewhat intrigued why Article 16 does not exist. I think there are some traces in the legal opinions of the government [which] I just turned it off as a way forward … Obviously, this will allow you to act much faster than the bill, “he said.
But he backed Foreign Minister Liz Truss’s controversial bill, saying there had been no “serious discussion” about the solutions proposed by the UK in a command document last summer.
He said: “Brexit works. We have no reason to regret the decision the country has taken. The solutions to the other problems are not in going backwards, but in completing the process and following its logic. ”
Frost played a leading role in the Brexit negotiations, first as an adviser to Boris Johnson as foreign minister and then as the prime minister’s trade negotiator for Brexit. Although he won applause from Brexit supporters for concluding a trade deal in December 2020, his ongoing criticism of Europe has sparked antagonism among many in Brussels.
He suggested on Wednesday that the EU should restore relations: “Does the EU want Brexit to work? Can he rise above the current frictions and work with the UK as a trusted partner or will he continue to harass and lecture us?
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