The rising cost of leaving the EU: £18bn blow in lost trade to Britain

The Centre for European Reform estimates that leaving the single market and customs union at the end of December 2020 had reduced UK trade by £10 billion, or 13.5 per cent, in May. The think tank said this was on top of a £8 billion, or 10 per cent, hit to trade between the June 2016 referendum and splintering away from the single market.

Its study is based on creating a “doppelgänger” for the UK trade in goods using data from a group of other similar countries to estimate what would have happened if Britain had stayed in the single market — and then comparing that with what has actually happened.

...“Despite the Government’s rhetoric, Brexit has led to more red tape and a more intrusive state,” said John Springford, deputy director of the Centre for European Reform.