EconomyNational 21h 19m left
Was Burnham correct in blaming Brexit for low growth?
Prime Minister Andy Burnham stated in his first Commons address on 1 September 2026 that Brexit compounded earlier policy errors and ushered in a decade of low growth and stalled regeneration. Independent analyses, including from the Office for Budget Responsibility, Bank of England data and academic studies, estimate Brexit has reduced UK GDP by 4-8% relative to a remain scenario through lower trade with the EU, reduced investment and productivity. UK GDP grew 0.6% in Q1 2026 and 0.4% in Q2, but overall post-2016 performance lags counterfactual models, amid other shocks like the pandemic and energy price rises.
4 Opinions
As usually he is wrong by definition. Similar size economies remaining in the EU suffered low growth as well. Low growth is result of high taxes, overcomplicated, silly laws and high debt spent instead invested.
No. Brexit was never really done. The result was argued instead of used, then Covid arrived and the field was never equal. Low growth has more than one parent: 2008, the pandemic, energy, investment. Models against a Remain world are not a verdict on a policy we only half ran. Do not hang the decade on a door nobody fully walked through.
The causes for low growth in the UK are lack of infrastructure, lack of housing and high electricity prices and lack of investment, part of that lack of investment is because of the public sector borrowing so much that bond yields are competing with private investment. Brexit maybe causes some trade frictions but is massively overrated as a cause for low growth