British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak believes the UK has made “great progress” since leaving the European Union (EU) three years ago, although recent polls show British dissatisfaction with ‘Brexit’.
On the occasion of this anniversary, Sunak stressed that the United Kingdom, as an independent country, took advantage of the opportunities presented by ‘Brexit’ to face the challenges it encountered.
Sunak, who supported leaving the EU in the 2016 referendum, added in a brief statement that, in these three years, “enormous strides have been made in harnessing the freedoms unlocked by Brexit to address generational challenges”.
Among these, he highlighted the UK vaccination program against covid-19, post-Brexit trade agreements and the “resumption of border control”.
According to a survey by the company Ipsos, carried out with a sample of 1,000 people aged between 18 and 75 years, 45% of respondents think that ‘Brexit’ is being worse than expected, almost double the 28% registered in June.
The study indicates that 39% of respondents think that ‘Brexit’ is going as expected, and 9% said it is going better than they expected.
Rishi Sunak’s government is facing a wave of strikes from different sectors, such as railway workers, nurses, teachers, paramedics and firefighters, who are demanding better wages to cope with the rising cost of living due to rising inflation, which slowed in December to 10.5%.
Today, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) indicated in its projections that the British economy will have the worst performance among all developed countries, including Russia.
According to the organization, the British Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will contract by 0.6% in 2023, revising downwards the previous expectation of growth of 0.3%.
The United Kingdom formally left the EU on January 31st, although it remained in the European single market until the end of the same year, so Brexit only became effective at 23:00 on December 31st.
