Mayor of London: Brexit has already cost Britain over €160 billion

London Mayor and Labor Party member Sadiq Khan said that the UK’s exit from the European Union has already led to a 6% reduction in the size of its economy, which is 140 billion pounds (over 162 billion euros).

The Financial Times reported this. London Mayor presented a study according to which the UK economy has become 162 billion euros smaller than it would have been if the country had remained in the EU.

The independent analysis, commissioned by Cambridge Econometrics, shows that the British economy is six percent smaller than it would have been if London had remained in the EU customs union and single market.

The consulting firm’s estimate is based on economic modeling if the country had not voted to leave.

Estimates also indicated that the United Kingdom would experience a 4.8% drop, resulting in 1.8 million fewer jobs compared to the projected number.

The London mayor supports a more open debate about the downsides of leaving the EU and the potential benefits of returning to the single market.

His stance is uncomfortable for Labor leader Keir Starmer, who previously opposed Brexit but has now pledged to make the exit work.

Starmer has ruled out joining the single market or customs union within the EU but insists that Britain can get a “much better” deal for itself by following EU standards in the areas of environment, labor, and food.

The study argues that economic losses will continue if Britain remains outside the single market, with real gross value added (GVA) by 2035 being around £311 billion (10.1 percent) lower than it would otherwise be.

Earlier, a poll showed that the majority of Britons would support the United Kingdom’s return to the EU single market.

Other polls in recent months have also shown that most Britons now consider Brexit a mistake. Data for 2022 showed record immigration to Britain, twice as much as in the year before Brexit.

Before that, the President of the European Commission, when asked whether she believed that Britain would ever be able to rejoin the EU, said that this was a matter for the next generation: “I keep telling my children: You have to fix this. We have messed up; you have to fix it.”