Has Brexit left Britain in a better state?

Others, such as John Springford from the Centre for European Reform — who has analysed the performance of several “doppelganger” countries since the UK voted to leave — think the initial economic hit of leaving was as much as 5 per cent, thanks to more trade friction and less business investment.

“Initially, there was a lot of uncertainty about what our relationship would be,” he says. “But the UK economy involved quite a lot of direct investment from Japanese manufacturers or American financial services firms who used the UK as a bridgehead to European markets.”