On June 23, 2016, Britons headed to the polls to vote on whether or not to remain within the European Union.
A shock end result emerged in a single day: the voters had voted to depart the bloc by 52% to 48%. The pound tanked. London’s FTSE 100 tumbled. Then-Prime Minister David Cameron — who had known as the referendum and led the marketing campaign for the Stay vote — resigned.
Since then, the U.Okay. haggled for a deal, as Cameron’s successor, Theresa Could, didn’t go a proposal thrice earlier than stepping down. Brexit was ultimately delivered by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2020.
The Brexit marketing campaign promised to “take again management” of immigration, unencumber more cash for the nation’s well being service, and forge commerce offers with the remainder of the world.
A decade later, Brexit nonetheless looms over life in Britain. This is how the U.Okay.’s financial and political scene has fared since then, in charts:
How Brexit affected U.Okay. progress
The U.Okay. financial system has largely didn’t expertise a post-Brexit enhance after upending ties with its largest buying and selling accomplice.
Whereas shocks such because the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 hit progress globally, Stanford professor Nicholas Bloom estimates that by 2025, Brexit had decreased the U.Okay.’s GDP by 6-8%.
He wrote that the unfavourable impacts “replicate a mixture of elevated uncertainty, decreased demand, diverted administration time, and elevated misallocation of assets from a protracted Brexit course of.”
How U.Okay. immigration modified after Brexit
The Vote Depart marketing campaign pledged to take again management of the U.Okay.’s migration coverage, however its departure from the bloc had unintended penalties. The U.Okay. now has web emigration with EU international locations, however migration from non-EU states surged amid work provide shortages, a rise in worldwide college students, and emergency visa schemes prolonged to international locations reminiscent of Ukraine.
Alternatively, fewer Europeans are shifting to the U.Okay., and web migration from the bloc has gone into reverse.
“EU web migration subsequently turned unfavourable in 2022, because the post-Brexit immigration system significantly decreased alternatives for EU residents to maneuver to the UK,” the Migration Observatory wrote in a Could briefing.
“Take-up of labor visas amongst EU residents has been comparatively low since Brexit.”
Sterling
One of many clearest indicators of the impression of Brexit is the worth of sterling, which crashed following the vote and is but to regain its pre-referendum highs in opposition to each the euro and the greenback. The pound has usually operated round 10% beneath its June 2016 worth, based on Convera.
Convera discovered that GBP/EUR has averaged €1.16 because the referendum, down from €1.27 within the decade earlier than, with sterling spending 98% of buying and selling because the Brexit vote beneath €1.20.
This made international items and property instantly dearer for U.Okay. residents, impacting the price of residing because the nation is a big importer of meals, power and supplies.
What occurred to the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250
The efficiency divergence between the large-cap, multinational FTSE 100 and the extra domestically-oriented FTSE 250 additionally paints a muted image for London’s capital markets.
“Beneath the floor, the UK inventory market nonetheless bears the scars of a call that has weighed on each enterprise and investor confidence,” Chris Smith, U.Okay. progress equities funding supervisor at Jupiter, informed CNBC.
“The FTSE 100, with its world income publicity and favorable sector composition, has considerably outperformed the extra domestically oriented FTSE 250. Sterling weak spot, FX-led inflation and a better value of capital have all contributed to a more difficult backdrop for UK-focused companies,” he added.
Neither index has saved tempo with the eyewatering beneficial properties skilled in U.S. fairness markets, which have loved a protracted bull run fueled by expertise and AI shares.
“The UK inventory market is little modified to 10 years in the past,” mentioned Mark Preskett, portfolio supervisor at Morningstar. “The FTSE’s dominant shares a decade in the past stay our most profitable corporations.”
“When you distinction this to the US market, you’ll be able to see a extra dynamic record of corporations and an index that has seen actual change.”
How Brexit modified U.Okay.-EU commerce
The EU stays the U.Okay.’s largest buying and selling accomplice, accounting for over €800 billion of imports and exports.
In 2025, the EU accounted for 41% of the UK’s exports and 50% of U.Okay. imports.
A brand new commerce deal between the 2 events was signed on Jan. 1 2021, stopping both aspect from introducing tariffs or quotas.
Prime ministers
When Cameron resigned the morning after the Brexit vote, he’d been prime minister for six years. His predecessor, Gordon Brown, was in workplace for 3 years. Earlier than Brown, Tony Blair was prime minister for a decade.
For the reason that referendum, no prime minister has lasted longer than three years — and one lasted simply 49 days.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer tried to rebuild the nation’s ties with Europe however resigned on Monday as he confronted a management problem from rival Andy Burnham, clearing the way in which for the seventh prime minister in a decade.
— CNBC’s Bryn Bache additionally contributed to this report.
