A MAJOR American news outlet has published a scathing assessment of the consequences of Brexit.
CNN, a multinational news outlet based in the United States, published an article on Tuesday setting out how the UK economy “still can’t cope” with the outcome of leaving the European Union.
Hannah Ziady, the outlet’s journalist based in London who covers financial markets, economies and companies in Europe, set out how delays on health and safety checks on food imports from the EU are the latest example of the fallout from Brexit.
The checks have been delayed for the fifth time in three years amid fears that further controls would disrupt supplies of essential goods and push up food prices.
“The latest foot-dragging demonstrates that Britain is still struggling to come to terms with the painful consequences of leaving the European Union in January 2020, which has piled costs on UK businesses and weighed on trade, investment and, ultimately, economic growth,” Ziady wrote.
“Brexit has already contributed to Britain’s particularly high inflation by introducing friction into the country’s most important trading relationship, and hitting the value of the pound, which has made imports more expensive.”
A recent study by the London School of Economics, the journalist added, found that Brexit was responsible for about a third of UK food price inflation since 2019.
We previously told how the UK Government quietly admitted that Brexit would drive up inflation, at the very end of a 1500-word press release confirming the delay on checks on food imports.
The CNN piece cited Shane Brennan, CEO of the Cold Chain Federation, who among other industry groups welcomed the latest delay amid fears that the introduction would add friction as well as costs to supply chains.
“These Brexit checks will fuel food price inflation whenever they are brought in, and so the longer they are held off the better,” Brennan said.
Industry groups have urged the UK Government to provide certainty for businesses as they have repeatedly prepared for the checks to be brought in only to see the deadlines delayed.
The piece also described the UK’s economy as in a “fragile state” after repeated hits including the Covid-19 pandemic, high inflation and high interest rates, caused by Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s disastrous mini-budget.
Food supply disruption, CNN explained, is also a “lingering concern” in the UK as the country imports just under half of all the food it consumes.
It comes after Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross, announcing his party's economic plans ahead of Holyrood reconvening after summer, completely ignored the impact of Brexit on Scotland's economy.
