Brexit costing UK business £37bn a year, figures reveal

Ministers have pledged to tear down” barriers to trade with the European Union after new figures showed Brexit has cost UK business 37bn a year.

- KATE DEVLIN

The price of the UK’s departure was laid bare as the government said the total trade with the EU was 5 per cent lower than before Britain left the bloc.

Trade minister Douglas Alexander hit out at the Brexit deal agreed by the previous Conservative government, saying it was “clear .. [it] is not working well enough”.

Labour is currently negotiating a “reset” of relations, in a deal Sir Keir Starmer has said will repair the UK’s damaged relationship with the EU for the benefit of “generations to come”.

Mr Alexander said ministers would work with other countries “to improve the UK’s trade and investment relationship with the EU, tearing down unnecessary barriers to trade to help drive growth”.

He added that in the 12 months to the end of September last year, the UK’s total trade with the EU was 5 per cent “below the level seen in 2018”, before the UK left the bloc, once inflation and precious metals were excluded.