EU supporters in London are calling on future Prime Minister Andy Burnham to return.Image: keystone
The British voted to leave the European Union ten years ago. Today the economic balance is sobering. But the country’s problems go back further.
June 23, 2026, 5:28 p.mJune 23, 2026, 5:28 p.m
Sunderland is an industrial and port city in the north-east of England. In Switzerland they are known through Nati captain Granit Xhaka, who is causing a sensation at the local Premier League club. Ten years ago, however, Sunderland became the poster child for Brexit: more than 60 percent of the electorate voted to leave the European Union.
They did so despite subtle warnings from Japanese car maker Nissan, which runs a factory in Sunderland producing for export to the EU. But the frustration over high immigration and globalized elites, distilled in the Brexit slogan “Take Back Control,” was stronger in the city that belongs to the “Rust Belt.”
The Nissan factory in Sunderland still exists, but produces almost 50 percent fewer cars.Image: EPA/EPA
Ten years later, the conclusion for Sunderland and the entire kingdom is: Brexit was a losing proposition. This can be seen from the Nissan factory. It still exists, but according to the “Economist” it produces 46 percent fewer cars. Local entrepreneurs complain about “phenomenally frustrating” paperwork due to leaving the EU internal market.
Harvest workers from Central Asia
Migration has not decreased, it literally exploded. And the workforce comes from increasingly distant regions. The strawberries, for example, which will be consumed en masse at the Wimbledon tennis tournament starting next week, are no longer harvested by Eastern Europeans, but rather from seasonal workers from Central Asia.
British economic output has shrunk due to Brexit. The extent is controversial among economists. Some assume up to eight percent, others less. According to the OECD, per capita growth in recent years has been higher than in crisis-hit Germany, but lower than in France, another notorious EU worry.
The EU remains the most important trading partner
The UK has signed 39 trade deals with 72 countries in the last decade, but most simply replace existing EU agreements. This remains by far the most important trading partner. Their share is more than 40 percent “only slightly lower than before the referendum”writes the New York Times.
The financial center of London remains number one and yet loses business areas to other cities.Image: KEYSTONE
It is a warning to those in Switzerland who claim that trade with the EU could be replaced by contracts with other countries. London’s financial center remains the largest in Europe, and yet there has been a “creeping outflow” towards Amsterdam or Dublin, economist Sarah Hall from the University of Cambridge told the New York Times.
Majority wants to return to the EU
Given this record, it is not surprising that many British people regret Brexit, according to surveys. Referred to in a recent survey by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). a majority consider the effects negative in many areas. Various surveys show that more than 50 percent would vote for a return to the EU.
What went wrong? Brexiteers like Nigel Farage still believe the decision was the right one. The problem is poor implementation. That’s not entirely wrong. After the referendum, the hapless Prime Minister Theresa May was unable to fill her slogan “Brexit means Brexit” with content for three years.
Radical treatment by Liz Truss
Her successor Boris Johnson pulled off the exit in 2020 with a hastily negotiated free trade agreement, but it could never replace membership in the European market. The next prime minister, Liz Truss, tried a radical treatment in the form of massive tax cuts, sending the financial markets into panic.
Video: watson/nina bürge
The short-term head of government was followed by Rishi Sunak, who was considered a competent financial politician. But he lacked the strength and courage for real rapprochement with the EU and tough reforms. The same was true of Labor Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who threw in the towel on Mondayas the sixth head of government since the Brexit decision on June 23, 2016.
Never recovered from the financial crisis
Market radical EU opponents had hoped to revitalize the British economy through deregulation and low taxes. None of this happened. Many EU regulations are still in force. There are practical reasons for this, as it facilitates exchange, but it is also due to resistance from stakeholders, a well-known phenomenon.
Ten years after the vote, the balance sheet is that there was hardly anything apart from expenses. But the structural problems were not caused by Brexit, as an analysis by the NZZ shows. The United Kingdom has never recovered from the 2008 financial crisis. It brought the then “Cool Britannia” boom to an abrupt end.
Low productivity
The coalition of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats under Prime Minister David Cameron, which has been in power since 2010, tried to take countermeasures with tough austerity policies. Public services suffered as a result, which was reflected in increasingly long waiting times in the healthcare system. Even ambulances could no longer be relied on.
The Liberal Democrats and their party leader Ed Davey (r.) protested against Nigel Farage and Brexit on Tuesday.Image: keystone
Even before Brexit, there were complaints about the low productivity of the British economy. It was a key reason why companies brought more and more workers into the country. Leaving the EU has hardly changed this. And despite austerity, national debt has risen sharply, to almost 100 percent of gross domestic product.
Excessive demands
The misery is therefore deep. “Why isn’t the kingdom finally getting the jolt that many Brits are longing for?” asks the NZZ. She locates the answer in the excessive demands of society: “People want a welfare state like in Germany, which should be financed through taxes and contributions like in the USA. That doesn’t work.”
The NZZ doubts that anything will change with Prime Minister-designate Andy Burnham. But at least the charismatic Labor politician from the north deserves a chance. His current fiercest opponent Nigel Farage, the head of the Brexit Party Reform UK, has little to offer other than quick sayings and polemics against migrants.
After ten years, many Brits are just frustrated. “Brexit has solved a problem we didn’t have,” Dominic Gardner, a civil engineering contractor from Sunderland, told the Economist. He would be in favor of returning to the EU and yet has no illusions. In practice, that will “never happen,” he says: “We’re stuck.”