U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer will attend a meeting of European Union leaders early next year LONDON -- LONDON (AP) — [Keir Starmer](https://apnews.com/article/uk-election-keir-starmer-profile-labour-e98d16e0810273f6041b61747e084aae) will attend a meeting of [European Union](https://apnews.com/hub/european-union) leaders early next year, becoming the first U.K. prime minister to do so since the country’s [departure from the bloc](https://apnews.com/article/brexit-relationships-europe-global-trade-coronavirus-pandemic-a5cc4350206b5c0273b41aef4d7b7381) in 2020. Starmer was invited to the “informal” Feb. 3 meeting in Brussels by European Council President António Costa on Thursday, when the two officials met for talks at Starmer’s office at 10 Downing St. Starmer’s office said that the prime minister was “pleased to accept the invitation and looked forward to discussing [enhanced strategic cooperation](https://apnews.com/article/eu-britain-uk-brexit-starmer-leyen-brussels-0936054bb4cf4991534a1ce437643a58) with the EU, notably on defense.” The U.K. and the EU have also agreed to have regular leader-level summits, starting in early 2025. At Thursday’s meeting, Starmer and Costa discussed support for Ukraine in its almost three-year war against [Russia's full-scale invasion](https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine), and the [fast-moving situation in Syria](https://apnews.com/article/syria-israel-airstrike-assad-war-b90edb8dbe8268dacf90e59ca601e2e3). A joint U.K.-EU statement said that they “agreed on the importance of ensuring a peaceful transition towards long-term political stability following the fall of (President Bashar) Assad’s brutal regime.” Starmer, whose center-left Labour Party was elected in July, says he wants to [“reset” U.K. relations with the 27-nation EU](https://apnews.com/article/keir-starmer-labour-challenges-ukraine-nato-gaza-0da1da8a74c6196518059d7d9fbcf77d) after years of acrimony, deepening cooperation on security and restoring some of the trade ties frayed by Brexit. Although he advocated remaining in the bloc during the 2016 Brexit referendum, Starmer has ruled out reversing the decision, or rejoining the EU’s borderless single market and customs union, which would require the U.K. to accept many of the bloc’s rules. He also has resisted pressure to agree to a youth mobility deal that would let young people from Britain and the EU live and work in the other’s territory for a time. A Starmer spokesman said there were “no plans” for such an agreement.

Britain has watched President Trump’s tariffs with a mix of shock, fascination and queasy recognition. The country, after all, embarked on a similar experiment in economic isolationism when it voted to leave the European Union in 2016. Nearly nine years after the Brexit referendum, it is still reckoning with the costs. The lessons of that experience are suddenly relevant again as Mr. Trump uses a similar playbook to erect walls around the United States. Critics once described Brexit as the greatest act of economic self-harm by a Western country in the post-World War II era. It may now be getting a run for its money across the Atlantic. Even Mr. Trump’s abrupt reversal last week of some of his tariffs, in the face of a bond-market revolt, [recalled Britain, where Liz Truss](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/09/business/economy/us-bonds-trump-truss-treasury-yield.html), a short-lived prime minister, was forced to retreat from radical tax cuts that frightened the markets. Her misbegotten experiment was the culmination of a cycle of extreme policies set off by Britain’s decision to forsake the world’s largest trading bloc. “In a way, some of the worst legacies of Brexit are still ahead,” said Mark Malloch Brown, a British diplomat who served as deputy secretary-general of the United Nations. Britain, he said, now faces a hard choice between rebuilding trade ties with Europe or preserving them with Mr. Trump’s America. “The fundamental issue remains the breach with our biggest trading partner,” Mr. Malloch Brown said, adding, “If the U.K. ends up in the arms of Europe because neither of them can work with the U.S. anymore, that’s only half a victory.” Trucks waiting to enter the British port of Dover in December 2020. Credit...Andrew Testa for The New York Times Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and [log into](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F04%2F13%2Fworld%2Feurope%2Fhow-brexit-a-startling-act-of-economic-self-harm-foreshadowed-trumps-tariffs.html&asset=opttrunc) your Times account, or [subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F04%2F13%2Fworld%2Feurope%2Fhow-brexit-a-startling-act-of-economic-self-harm-foreshadowed-trumps-tariffs.html) for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? [Log in](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F04%2F13%2Fworld%2Feurope%2Fhow-brexit-a-startling-act-of-economic-self-harm-foreshadowed-trumps-tariffs.html&asset=opttrunc). Want all of The Times? [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F04%2F13%2Fworld%2Feurope%2Fhow-brexit-a-startling-act-of-economic-self-harm-foreshadowed-trumps-tariffs.html).

LONDON -- Britain’s government said Monday it has struck new agreements with the European Union on boosting defense cooperation, easing food trade and border checks. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the deals will slash red tape, grow the British economy and reset relations with the 27-nation trade bloc since the U.K. [left the EU in 2020](https://apnews.com/article/brexit-ap-top-news-london-boris-johnson-international-news-e48bf51838ced94e2d92adba189b4944). [Starmer](https://apnews.com/hub/keir-starmer) hosted European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other senior EU officials in London for the first formal U.K.-EU summit since Brexit. Under the deals, a new U.K.-EU defense and security partnership will allow the U.K. to access a EU defense loan program worth 150 billion euros ($170 billion.) Other agreements include removing some checks on animal and plant products to ease food trade across borders, and a 12-year extension of an agreement allowing EU fishing vessels in U.K. waters. “It’s time to look forward. To move on from the stale old debates and political fights to find common sense, practical solutions which get the best for the British people,” Starmer said. While the EU is the U.K.’s largest trading partner, the U.K. has been hit with a 21% drop in exports since Brexit because of more onerous border checks, laborious paperwork and other barriers. Since becoming prime minister in July, Starmer has sought to [reset relations with the EU](https://apnews.com/article/eu-britain-uk-brexit-starmer-leyen-brussels-0936054bb4cf4991534a1ce437643a58), following years of tensions in the wake of the U.K.'s 2016 [Brexit referendum](https://apnews.com/hub/brexit). Post-Brexit relations have been governed by a [trade agreement](https://apnews.com/article/brexit-legislature-europe-global-trade-united-kingdom-20e7da069c6878baf6da3a47373831a9) negotiated by then Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Starmer thinks that can be improved in a way that boosts trade and bolsters security. “This is about making people better off, about making the country more secure, about making sure there are more jobs in the U.K.,” Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told Times Radio. Stronger ties with the EU will bring “more benefits for the United Kingdom” following trade agreements that the U.K. struck in recent weeks with India and the United States, Starmer said. Though no tariffs are slapped on the export of goods between both sides, an array of non-tariff barriers have made trade more difficult. Post-Brexit visa restrictions have also hobbled the cross-border activities of professionals such as bankers or lawyers, as well as cultural exchanges, including [touring bands](https://apnews.com/article/brexit-business-europe-global-trade-music-ab93af784e8ad80361e4067bcd3bd737) and school trips. Since the Labour Party took power last year after 14 years of Conservative government, a period that was largely marked by upheavals surrounding the Brexit vote and its aftermath, both sides have sought to improve relations. That’s been most evident in the [more coordinated response](https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-britain-zelenskyy-europe-starmer-trump-russia-b980170ead74a1a7914c565f14ee6cc9) to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in the wake of a change of approach by Washington following the return of [U.S. President Donald Trump](https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump). But Starmer has stressed that the U.K. won't rejoin the EU's frictionless single market and customs union, nor agree to the free movement of people between the U.K. and the EU. Talks on strengthening ties have focused largely on security and defense, and on a [youth mobility plan](https://apnews.com/article/eu-uk-brexit-youth-mobility-studies-7f90241f2014bb3d955a0e8a87b2f012) that would allow young Britons and Europeans to live and work temporarily in each other’s territory. That remains a politically touchy issue in the U.K., seen by some Brexiteers as inching back toward free movement — though the U.K. already has youth mobility arrangements with countries including Australia and Canada. Another issue that has long been a sticking point in U.K.-EU relations is [fishing](https://apnews.com/article/brexit-europe-london-global-trade-europe-b9022a3900ad8e9f5c4fec730b92db8a) — an economically minor but symbolically important issue for the U.K. and EU member states such as France. Disputes over the issue nearly derailed a Brexit deal back in 2020. The summit is also expected to cover aligning standards on the sale of agricultural products, which could eliminate costly checks on food products exported across the English Channel. Thomas-Symonds said he was confident that trade could be improved for food imports and exports. “We know we’ve had lorries waiting for 16 hours, fresh food in the back not able to be exported, because frankly it’s just going off, red tape, all the certifications that are required, we absolutely want to reduce that,” he told the BBC. Some of the trade-offs may prove difficult for Starmer, who faces growing challenges from the pro-Brexit and anti-immigration Reform U.K. party and will likely see accusations of “betraying Brexit,” whatever the outcome of the talks. Reform, which recently [won big in local elections](https://apnews.com/article/uk-local-elections-runcorn-reform-farage-33fa773d553d022c6af527656e54ac21), and the opposition Conservative Party have already called the deal a “surrender” to the EU before any details were confirmed. Trump, who has backed Brexit, could also be a potential headache for Starmer. “The reset could still be blown off course by disagreements over how to consolidate existing areas of cooperation like fisheries and/or external factors, such as a negative reaction from the U.S. to the U.K. seeking closer ties with the EU,” said Jannike Wachowiak, research associate at the UK in a Changing Europe think tank.

A British cheese maker who was forced to sell his business because of a £600,000 loss caused by [Brexit](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/eu-referendum) red tape has welcomed the new deal with Brussels – but says it comes four years too late. Simon Spurrell, who made headlines when [he highlighted prohibitive export costs](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jan/23/cheshire-cheesemaker-says-business-left-with-250000-brexit-hole) after the UK’s exit from the single market, said he was delighted the “grownups are back in the room” and he will now consider relaunching his business as long as the details are confirmed. “It is good news but we could have had this from day one. It is just such a shame it has taken so long, we could have had this in 2020,” he said. His company’s business model [was upended overnight](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/mar/27/brexit-uk-cheese-firm-boss-in-despair-over-ministers-export-advice) under the hard Brexit deal sealed by Boris Johnson with [20% of sales revenue disappearing immediately.](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jan/23/cheshire-cheesemaker-says-business-left-with-250000-brexit-hole) The former prime minister decided to reject the EU’s offer of a Swiss deal obviating the need for veterinary certification on food including red meat, poultry and shellfish because it would have meant the UK aligning itself with EU rules. A version of the Swiss deal, with most sanitary and phytosanitary checks eliminated, is now back on the table, with hopes it can be concluded within a year. Brexit meant Spurrell faced charges of £180 per veterinary certification on retail orders on the continent, even for cheese packs worth just £35. Initially Spurrell, who had committed to a £1m expansion for his growing Cheshire [Cheese](https://www.theguardian.com/food/cheese) Company, tried to get around the new trade barriers considering warehousing cheese on the continent. But the costs were prohibitive and he sold to a larger business who had a distribution centre in the Netherlands and a legal entity to export to in Germany. “They were exporting to themselves but it still meant the UK was losing out. They have to pay 5% of corporate tax and 20% VAT to the Germans and the transport costs have to be paid to the Dutch, so margins are tight. This deal potentially does away with that but we have to wait to see if it includes no checks for orders from individual customers,” he said. Even if not, this is huge news for small and medium-sized businesses, he said. “Our biggest consumer market, 27 neighbouring countries that we lost, is open again. It is the small producers that lost out from Brexit. The biggest companies and supermarket chains were able to shoulder the costs. “Now we can stop fishing in this small pond and cast our net wider again. Everybody has been waiting for this to happen. Just thank heavens the grownups are back in the room instead of people trying to make the EU to be the bad guys when it is the British government who cut us out of the market in the first place and rejected the original SPS deal.” He added: “All the Tories were interested in was soundbites and sabre-rattling, not British business.” In 2021, the first year of Brexit trading operations, Spurrell lost £240,000 in wholesale and consumer business in [Europe](https://www.theguardian.com/world/europe-news) and was looking at another hold of £350,000 the following year before deciding to sell up. He said the alliance with Joseph Heler, a much larger concern, offered strategic means of dealing with costly Brexit trade barriers. “If you are large enough you can mitigate the increased costs because the cost of the paperwork for one pallet of cheese can be spread across 100 pallets. It will also benefit all the customers in the EU because they can get a local delivery rate,” he added. Spurrell said the deal, which was undertaken for an undisclosed sum, was also great news for his workforce. All head office, production and warehouse staff will be retained while 14 additional full and part-time jobs will be created.

Like a Hollywood studio churning out the umpteenth sequel in a stale franchise, Westminster has manufactured another episode in the interminable Brexit Wars saga. The Reset is based on the true story of a prime minister [negotiating improved terms of trade](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/may/19/keir-starmer-uk-eu-reset-deal-win-win) with the EU, against a backdrop of global insecurity and rising economic uncertainty. Many familiar elements of the Brexit cinematic universe are represented: talks that go to the wire; French obstinacy; cries of betrayal from militant Eurosceptics; fish. We have been in this movie before, although each iteration is slightly different. The big plot twist this time is a Labour government that is prepared to say aloud that Brexit inflicted harm on the UK economy, and that closer relations with European neighbours are in the national interest. Keir Starmer hasn’t exactly torn up the old script. His Brussels deal quest has innovative features – defence and security partnership, energy market integration – but it doesn’t stray far from conventional Brexit lore. The substance is still confined to that narrow terrain where economic reality overlaps with domestic political acceptability. The action of The Reset takes place in that valley of magical thinking where frictionless commerce with the European single market is understood to be desirable, but talk of rejoining it is taboo. To his credit, the prime minister has nudged the dial a few notches. He accepts the logic that favourable terms of trade with a huge continental bloc require regulatory alignment, and that streamlining the process – restoring more automatic recognition of common standards – is not a dissolution of national sovereignty tantamount to treason. This is a battle Starmer is prepared to fight. He thinks most British people can tell the difference between eliminating costly paperwork on sausage exports and colonial submission. No one who isn’t already signed up to a Eurosceptic battle re-enactment society will be persuaded to join by the sound of their blood-curdling howls over the past 48 hours. Kemi Badenoch was calling Monday’s gathering of EU leaders in London a “surrender summit” before there was even an agreement to denounce. Maybe she thought it sounded like the kind of thing Boris Johnson would say. She couldn’t have anticipated how far off the hinges Johnson hangs these days. He called Starmer “the orange ball-chewing manacled gimp of Brussels”. There is no sequel that could satisfy the hardcore Brexit Wars cosplayers. They won and haven’t stopped pining for the struggle ever since. They are victors with no spoils. They cannot say the deal Johnson signed in 2020 is good, but since it gave them everything they wanted, they struggle to say how it might be improved if not by reversal. They accuse Starmer of selling out British fishing fleets when the terms he has agreed are just the existing ones on a longer lease. So the continuity leave argument seems to be that even more of Johnson’s Brexit is a reversal of Brexit. These are [not serious people](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/may/19/starmers-eu-reset-triggers-outbreak-of-brexit-derangement-syndrome). The same conclusion has to be drawn from the allergic reaction to talk of a youth mobility scheme. The proposal for a dedicated 18-30s work permit would look much like the model already available to young Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders and South Koreans. But in the paranoid Brexit mind, _any_ movement of European citizens to the UK – even if controlled with visas and limited by quotas – smells too much like the old _free_ movement. Failure (or, more likely, wilful refusal) to understand what is really being discussed here is dismal enough. The more dispiriting element is an inability to conceive of a world in which young British people might be grateful for an expanded right to travel and work on the continent. When European officials first raised the prospect of youth mobility with [Labour](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/labour) ministers, they pitched it as a mutual benefit – an obvious win-win. It was received instead as a demand, as if the privilege of living and working in Britain is a precious and exclusive mineral resource that Brussels wants to extract, and for which a price must be paid in concessions elsewhere. Even a Labour government, ostensibly committed to restoring closer ties, struggles to find a vocabulary of reciprocal advantage through continental integration. This is a conceptual barrier to wholehearted participation in the European project that dates back to well before the referendum. It is the plot of [Brexit Wars: Origin Stories](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/29/the-highs-and-lows-of-britains-47-years-in-the-eec-and-eu) _–_ the sting of humiliation through post-imperial decline that made accession to the European Economic Community a necessity in 1973; the edifice of rebate and opt-outs that preserved a culture of transactional separateness; the evolution of conspiracist Europhobic mythologies in the press over many years and the cowardice of successive prime ministers in refusing to confront them. For decades, the facts to support an argument that Britain was stronger in the EU were [submerged](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/26/dunkirk-brexit-retreat-europe-britain-eec) in a swamp of national neurosis – the inferiority complex manifest as self-aggrandising exceptionalism. They never rose to the surface when membership was on the ballot paper in 2016. [ Selling our sole? Brixham fishers divided on UK’s new EU deal ](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/may/20/its-a-disaster-uk-fishers-angered-by-latest-uk-eu-deal) Instead, leave and remain became proxies for other cultural and economic divisions that could never be settled by Brexit. Nine years later, they are still visible in election results and opinion polls, like a watermark in the post-referendum currency of party political allegiance. The Tories are in desperate trouble because Badenoch can’t compete with Reform UK to consolidate a Brexit-coded electoral coalition, and she won’t reach out to more liberal, centrist voters who feel more at home with the Liberal Democrats. Starmer’s position is stronger in terms of seats currently held but brittle in similar ways. Labour is struggling to reconcile its modern reliance on a remain-dominated voter base with a foundational and nostalgic idea of itself as the natural party of the former industrial working-class heartlands that voted leave. Those electoral faultlines track deep cultural scars, but they don’t have to disfigure politics for ever. Britain is on a more European trajectory as a matter of strategic necessity in a dangerous world. Donald Trump is an [unreliable ally](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/07/donald-trump-nato-alliance-us-security-support) and Vladimir Putin is a determined foe. People can see that change in the geopolitical climate, even if the tone of Westminster debate, stuck on the old script, fails to respond with suitable urgency. Solidarity with our continental neighbours is a national mission that transcends the tedious, juvenile idiom of Brexit Wars fandom and the sniffing of treason in renewable fish quotas. Or we have to hope it is. This is the test of The Reset_._ It won’t be the last episode in a genre shaped by fantasy, but it could be the start of a new storyline where reality fights back. * Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist * [One year of Labour, with Pippa Crerar, Rafael Behr and more](https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-live-events/2025/may/09/one-year-of-labour-with-pippa-crerar-rafael-behr-and-more?utm_medium=ACQUISITIONS_FOOTER&utm_campaign=live_event_one_year_of_labour&utm_content=footer_links&utm_term=website&utm_source=GUARDIAN_WEB) On 9 July join Pippa Crerar, Raf Behr, Frances O’Grady and Salma Shah as they look back at one year of the Labour government and plans for the next three years * _**Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our [letters](https://www.theguardian.com/tone/letters) section, please [click here](mailto:[email protected]?body=Please%20include%20your%20name,%20full%20postal%20address%20and%20phone%20number%20with%20your%20letter%20below.%20Letters%20are%20usually%20published%20with%20the%20author%27s%20name%20and%20city/town/village.%20The%20rest%20of%20the%20information%20is%20for%20verification%20only%20and%20to%20contact%20you%20where%20necessary.).**_

* Originally from the West Midlands, Merlin Daleman has lived in the Netherlands for most of his adult life. In 2017, the photographer embarked on a journey through the the UK that resulted in [Mutiny](https://gostbooks.com/products/mutiny), a photo book published by GOST. _All photographs Merlin Daleman_  [](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2025/aug/20/outsiders-view-post-brexit-northern-britain-in-pictures#img-1) * Driven by curiosity to understand the divisions in the UK made evident by the 2016 Brexit referendum, he revisited the previously familiar with the eyes of an outsider  [](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2025/aug/20/outsiders-view-post-brexit-northern-britain-in-pictures#img-2) * Daleman visited more than 60 towns and cities from Aberdeen to Bangor, Blackpool to Belfast and Fife to Skegness, surveying the streets on foot  [](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2025/aug/20/outsiders-view-post-brexit-northern-britain-in-pictures#img-3) * ’I spotted the young women walking into a coffee shop,’ says Daleman  [](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2025/aug/20/outsiders-view-post-brexit-northern-britain-in-pictures#img-4) * ’Having left many years ago, I returned to find a country frozen in time,’ says Daleman. ‘While London had flourished, the communities of the north were left behind. Cities once full of factories were filled with food banks, barbershops and fading hopes  [](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2025/aug/20/outsiders-view-post-brexit-northern-britain-in-pictures#img-5) * ’I went to Possilpark in Glasgow and talked to people in healthcare and social work’  [](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2025/aug/20/outsiders-view-post-brexit-northern-britain-in-pictures#img-6) * A woman and a girl sit listening to a Plaid Cymru rally calling for Welsh independence. Since the Brexit vote, there has been a noticeable revival of the independence movement in Wales  [](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2025/aug/20/outsiders-view-post-brexit-northern-britain-in-pictures#img-7) * Daleman’s images range from boarded-up shopfronts to rainy streets, canals and bright seafront businesses  [](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2025/aug/20/outsiders-view-post-brexit-northern-britain-in-pictures#img-8) * ’On the seafront at Skegness, I came across the rear entrance to the Pleasure Beach. The drainpipe cut through the word pleasure, almost as if striking it out – a detail that felt symbolic and ironic. Coastal towns have seen a decline in tourism since the late 80s, partly due to cheap holiday flights abroad’  [](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2025/aug/20/outsiders-view-post-brexit-northern-britain-in-pictures#img-9) * As Daleman passes through towns such as Bridlington, he captures people demonstrating humour, warmth, fortitude and a sense of community  [](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2025/aug/20/outsiders-view-post-brexit-northern-britain-in-pictures#img-10) * Noem Lorraine Wildes (left), founded Rainy Bakes. She prefers to be known not as a baker but as a cake artist. Clients bring her photographs, which she reimagines in sugar and icing. The business is based in Jaywick, often described as the most disadvantaged place in the UK  [](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2025/aug/20/outsiders-view-post-brexit-northern-britain-in-pictures#img-11) * ’At the food bank of the Elim Community Church, the number of visitors collecting a bag of free groceries had risen to 600 in a month, up from 400 the month before,’ says Daleman. ‘Volunteers told me they have seen this rise continue steadily in recent years’  [](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2025/aug/20/outsiders-view-post-brexit-northern-britain-in-pictures#img-12) * The book’s essay, by journalist Niels Posthumus, draws upon an interview with Philip McCann, an economic geographer at the University of Manchester, who believes that hardly any other European country experiences such a stark geographical divide between rich and poor as the UK  [](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2025/aug/20/outsiders-view-post-brexit-northern-britain-in-pictures#img-13) * The economy of London – where national policy is formed – is larger than the economies of the next 14 largest British cities combined. A sense of disparity and disenfranchisement felt by many in the north is confirmed by economics. It is against this backdrop that the Leave campaign thrived, resulting in what could be considered ‘a mutiny’. It is this that gave Daleman the title of his book  [](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2025/aug/20/outsiders-view-post-brexit-northern-britain-in-pictures#img-14)

A significant number of EU citizens living long term in the UK post [Brexit](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/eu-referendum) are experiencing discrimination in work and in public services, a report by the UK’s statutory Brexit watchdog has revealed. Five years after the UK quit the bloc, more than a third reported feeling discriminated against by public bodies. One in five said they had experienced difficulties accessing their rights including the right to work, the right to travel in and out of the country and their right to equal treatment in public services. “Five years on from Brexit, the survey results support our current understanding that whilst awareness of rights is increasing, barriers in accessing those rights remain for some citizens. It is also likely that type of issues being faced by EU and EEA Efta citizens will only continue to evolve in complexity,” said Miranda Biddle, the chief executive of the Independent Monitoring Authority (IMA). The IMA is the body set up by the Withdrawal Act 2020 to ensure citizens’ rights to live, work, retire and access health and social welfare were upheld. Brexit was a huge disruption to the 7.1 million people from the EU, the European Economic Area and the European Free Trade Association countries such as Norway, who have either settled or pre-settled status in the UK. When asked what steps the IMA could take to make a difference to their lives, more than half those surveyed cited help to maintain their rights to “travel freely without worry or concern”. They also wanted the IMA to help to ensure adequate access to support when needed and help to ensure future generations were protected. The IMA has been tracking EU citizens’ experiences since 2021, the first full year the UK was outside the bloc. Its citizens’ rights survey 2025 found that the majority of EU citizens were aware of their rights under the withdrawal agreement, a legally binding treaty that formed the basis of Brexit. But the survey exposed some concerning knowledge gaps when it came to children. Almost four in 10 said they had not applied for settled status for their child. Of that group, more than 70% believed their child had an automatic right to British citizenship. There was also a significant number who felt they had been discriminated against by GPs, hospitals, a local authority or the Home Office and Border Force. Only 61% said they trusted public bodies to protect their rights, with distrust higher in the over 65s. A quarter complained that their professional qualifications, from accountancy to architecture, were not being recognised. The Home Office has been approached for comment.

While Keir Starmer [fiddles in India](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/oct/08/keir-starmer-india-digital-id-visit-mumbai), Rome burns. The British steel industry now faces a calamity so severe, insiders say it could be “terminal”. The vast majority – 80% – of its output is [exported to the EU](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/oct/07/eu-plan-to-match-trump-steel-tariffs-spurs-existential-threat-to-uk-steel-industry), which this week revealed plans to [cut tariff-free steel import quotas](https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/eu-steel-import-quota-plan-goes-too-far-says-european-auto-lobby-2025-10-08/) by almost half. The remainder will be subject to a 50% tariff. The UK steel industry will be butchered. Thank you, EU. Thank you, Brexit. Whenever I meet politicians who championed [Brexit](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/eu-referendum) nowadays, I ask them a simple question: do you still think you were right? A few fools mutter, “Yes, on balance” and “In the long term, perhaps.” The honest ones shrug and look uncomfortable. We can all accept that some day a new generation of British politicians will resume open trade across the Channel. It is normal for an island, and makes sense. So I ask the honest ones: why not go public? Make a headline, stand up, apologise and get the ball rolling? None has done so. In May, Starmer timidly negotiated a [“Brexit reset”](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/may/19/keir-starmer-uk-eu-reset-deal-win-win) with Brussels. This injected pockets of sanity into increasingly chaotic border controls, especially on food. A few more EU students whom Brexit had crassly restricted may be admitted, along with a new e-gate for passport entry. There must still be checks – they start rolling out [from this Sunday](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/03/brexit-conservatives-european-convention-human-rights-echr) – to enforce the rule limiting Britons to no more than 90 out of any 180 days [inside the Schengen area](https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/oct/07/europe-new-biometric-border-checks-what-do-non-eu-travellers-need-to-know). Further resets are mooted in coming years. According to the thinktank UK in a Changing Europe, most industries just cannot wait. They are struggling to keep open markets, and if necessary [realign themselves with the EU](https://www.economist.com/britain/2025/08/27/quietly-britain-is-moving-closer-to-eu-rules?taid=68b405b5f1d64000019369e6) by the back door. The chemicals industry exports more than 60% of its output to the EU. Brexiteers boasted it would be liberated from EU regulation, but setting up the UK’s own regulator cost £2bn and has not worked. According to the Chemical Industries Association, output has fallen by 35-40% since 2021. Between 2021 and 2023, British exports to the EU [fell by a serious 27%](https://www.aston.ac.uk/research/bss/research-centres/business-prosperity/unbound). Brexiteers boasted that leaving the EU would be worth [hundreds of billions](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/18/boris-johnson-350-million-claim-bogus-foreign-secretary) a year. Cambridge Econometrics estimates that over the next decade Britain’s economy will be [£300bn smaller](https://www.london.gov.uk/new-report-reveals-uk-economy-almost-ps140billion-smaller-because-brexit) than if we had not left the EU. This is self-harm on a heroic scale. What matters is how to scramble out of the pit. For most politicians, Brexit was never a policy priority. It was a leadership stunt, conducted with the grain of Britain’s shambolic political climate in the mid-to-late 2010s. Parliament enacted what a majority of members on all sides of the Commons knew was wrong. Worse still, when a soft Brexit was a feasible least-bad option, the Labour party failed to unite with anti-Brexit Tories to retain trading links with Europe. A hugely critical national issue sank into a swamp of parliamentary infighting, on a level approaching that now being [repeated in Paris](https://www.euronews.com/2025/09/08/french-political-crisis-threatens-countrys-influence-over-the-eu). The excuse was that the public wanted it. There is no such excuse now. Voters have had the courage to look at the facts and admit the mistake. According to YouGov, 61% [have concluded](https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/52410-nine-years-after-the-eu-referendum-where-does-public-opinion-stand-on-brexit) that Brexit is a failure. Just 13% now regard it as more of a success. Almost half want another referendum within five years, and 63% oppose loosening ties with the EU any further. That figure should daub every public meeting staged by Nigel Farage. The need is urgent for some coalition of politicians to take the lead and state baldly that Brexit was an error. Of the many failings of parliament, its inability to rise to the occasion above party politics is the most glaring. Britain’s re-entry into some trading relationship with [Europe](https://www.theguardian.com/world/europe-news) should now be the subject of a crossparty forum or select committee. They should press Starmer towards an urgent and concerted bid to reassociate with the EU. It will not be cheap, but it will be worth it. The leadership of the Tory party may find it hard to get its head round the necessary U-turn. That is tough. Its failure to explain or justify other aspects of its performance in government is already not serving it well. To accuse Starmer last May of “betrayal” and [“surrender”](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/05/19/politics-latest-news-brexit-starmer-uk-eu-summit/) over his EU deal was idiotic. There must be Tories who know the truth: honest politicians who follow Keynes’ purported advice and allow circumstances to alter their views. At present, as with anti-Trump Republicans in the US, the question is, when do they have the guts to surface? [skip past newsletter promotion](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/10/brexit-blame-crisis-uk-steel-keir-starmer#EmailSignup-skip-link-9) Sign up to Matters of Opinion Guardian columnists and writers on what they’ve been debating, thinking about, reading, and more **Privacy Notice:** Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on [theguardian.com](https://www.theguardian.com/) to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our [Privacy Policy](https://www.theguardian.com/help/privacy-policy). We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google [Privacy Policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy) and [Terms of Service](https://policies.google.com/terms) apply. after newsletter promotion The public is clearly ready to see Brexit reversed. There cannot be a single industry that would oppose it. The need is for leadership. This should not be a partisan matter, except insofar as it might isolate Farage’s Reform party – and perhaps be his undoing. It should become a consensus. Of course it will not be easy. But it will be right. * Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist * This article was amended on 10 October 2025. An earlier version incorrectly said that Britons could spend no more than a quarter of any 12-month period inside the Schengen area