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London mayor Sadiq Khan says Brexit cost UK over US$178 billion so far: ‘obvious it isn’t working’
- Britain’s departure from the European Union has reduced the size of its economy by 6 per cent, London mayor Sadiq Khan said
- Khan, a member of the opposition Labour Party, which voted against Brexit, based his statement on a report he commissioned from consultants Cambridge Econometrics
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Britain’s departure from the European Union has reduced the size of its economy by 6 per cent so far – an annual cost of 140 billion pounds (US$178 billion) – London mayor Sadiq Khan said on Thursday, with the shortfall seen reaching 10 per cent by 2035.
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Khan, a member of the opposition Labour Party, which voted against Brexit in a 2016 referendum, based his statement on a report he commissioned from economic consultants Cambridge Econometrics, who estimated how fast the economy would have grown if Britain had voted to stay in the EU.
“It’s now obvious that Brexit isn’t working. The hardline version of Brexit we’ve ended up with is dragging our economy down and pushing up the cost of living,” Khan said in remarks released before a speech he is due to give later on Thursday.
London’s economy is £30 billion smaller – about 7.5 per cent – than its projected size if the UK had remained in the EU, the study concluded.
The analysis by Cambridge Econometrics estimated that Britain’s economy would have missed out on more than £300 billion by 2035 if no action is taken, with the capital’s economy missing £60 billion.
The study also found that the average Londoner was nearly £3,400 worse off last year due to Brexit, with almost 300,000 fewer jobs present in the capital.
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