The government has been heavily criticised in a new report about how it is handling the UK post-Brexit and “underestimated” the impact of leaving the bloc.
A lengthy study from UK In A Changing Europe, published this week, has examined how the country has coped since leaving the EU – and concluded the UK is struggling to cope.
Post-Brexit policymaking is ‘unstable’
Eight years since Brits narrowly voted to leave the trading bloc and five years since Boris Johnson vowed to “get Brexit done”, “the post-Brexit state is still very much a work in progress”, the experts claimed.
In fact, the government “lacks a strategic vision of what post-Brexit policymaking should look like”.
It added: “An approach is emerging from a series of bottom-up decisions by individual ministers, creating a policy landscape which is incoherent and uncertain.
“Policy is unstable due to ministerial churn, a lack of central direction, and vulnerability to lobbying.”
That’s not a surprising conclusion, as we’ve seen five prime ministers since the EU referendum and two general elections.
Government objectives have “chopped and changed” repeatedly, and Brexit has “taken a toll” on relations within the government – particularly between ministers, their watchdogs and their civil servants.
And, as a result of leaving the EU, devolved governments now have new pressures despite a “lack of capacity”.
UK is ‘diminished’ on the world stage
On a geopolitical level, the researchers found that the UK is yet to adjust to being a third country in relation to the EU – even though it now has a “diminished” influence on global trade, climate and AI.
“Taking back control, it transpires, is a long and iterative process,” the study found, adding: “The government seems to have underestimated what is involved in taking over the tasks and functions it has inherited from the EU.”
Civil service coordination is ‘awkward’
Meanwhile, the civil service – which has since grown by 100,000 – generally “lacks a clear, central unit for coordinating EU policy”, and division of labour between various departments remains “awkward”.
Regulators “have been hamstrung by a lack of resources, skills and experience”, and many new schemes “remain incomplete” such as transitions EU and EEA nationals to settled status, the think tank summarised.
But, UK-EU relations are improving
It’s not all bad; UK-EU relations are returning to normal after the chaos of the negotiations leading up to Britain’s official withdrawal.
The report suggested: “The UK has started, under Rishi Sunak, to rebuild relationships with the EU that were badly damaged through the Brexit negotiations and even more by the behaviour of Boris Johnson and David Frost when they sought to renege on the agreements they reached.”
The report also pointed to Sunak’s recent Windsor Framework improved trade moving to Northern Ireland.
However, the researchers suggested there is an ongoing risk that tensions on the Irish border could build over the new framework, as it is yet to be implemented.