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Public opinion is shifting, and the media are starting to talk seriously about how badly Brexit is affecting the UK economy. 

With over 4 million views already, the new film from the FT – The Brexit effect: how leaving the EU hit the UK – is a landmark investigation into how Brexit has affected the UK economy. This in-depth film demonstrates just how badly Brexit is hurting the UK economy.  

“Six years after the UK voted to leave,” writes the FT, “the effect has become clear. In this film, senior FT writers and British businesspeople examine how Brexit hit the UK economy, the political conspiracy of silence, and why there has not yet been a convincing case for a 'Brexit dividend'.” 

In the film, the FT examines how Brexit hit wages, made imports more expensive and, as exports didn’t become more price competitive, “The immediate cost (of Brexit) was about £870 per household.” All whilst “Business investment has been growing in all G7 countries, except in the UK.” 

On top of this, Brits now have the worst access to healthcare in Europe and the UK is forecast to have the lowest economic growth of any major economy aside from Russia. 

This is why we are ramping-up our efforts to reverse the calamity of Brexit and rebuild the UK’s economy through restoring our relationship with Europe. Step-by-step we will make this happen. 

In the film, we hear from numerous small business-owners whose companies have been severely impacted by Brexit – such as husband and wife team Rob and Vicky Walker (co-founders of Little Star Jewellery) and Kiran Tawadey (founder of Hampstead Tea Company).  

Kiran told of how “The reality was that January to June (2021) we couldn’t ship anything to the EU, nothing... and we were treated as a third country.” 

Whilst Vicky spoke about “We were doing really well in The Netherlands and in Spain. All of that has just disappeared.” 

This, from the @FT. 🇪🇺 pic.twitter.com/fGoVf4xVyp

— European Movement UK (@euromove) October 21, 2022

With the reality that the ‘Majority of Brits now regret Brexit’, now – more than ever - we want to hear from you.

We are working step-by-step to reverse the calamity of Brexit and campaigning for the UK to rejoin the EU when the political conditions are right. We are strictly cross-party and represent voices from across the political spectrum. As such, testimonials are crucial to shaping our campaign work. 

Do you have a similar story? If so, get in touch and let us know your Brexit story at [email protected]. Your words help to build a more accurate picture of how Brexit is affecting the UK, sector by sector, region by region and home by home.  

This way we can keep bringing together the evidence that Brexit isn't working. 

Only together can we reverse this calamity. 

On Saturday, thousands of us took to the streets of London for the National Rejoin March. Here’s the speech I gave at the event, where I had the privilege to speak alongside many other inspiring pro-European voices:

We are in an economic political calamity and it has one obvious cause: Brexit

The hashtag we have all been using becomes more self-evident by the day: Brexit broke Britain

It has broken our democracy, because it introduced the use of casual and outrageous lies into our political discourse.

It swept aside the skill of centuries of politicians, explaining to citizens the importance of trade-offs and replaced this political dialogue with lies about sunlit uplands with no downsides.

Having your cake and eating it moved from being a criticism of unrealistic expectations to the bread-and-butter of our political discourse.

This has culminated in the political disaster of Liz Truss’s Fairytale economics.

Finally the Brexit fantasy – and the oligarchs and economic extremists who created it – have been brought up short. I wonder if the market privateers appreciate the irony that it was actually the markets that took back control.

Brexit is also central to this economic calamity. It is not a coincidence that the £65bn that the IFS says is the size of the black hole in the public finances is almost exactly the same as the £66bn that Standard and Poors estimated as the cost of Brexit.

But Brexit has also shone a light on the weaknesses in our political system that the Brexiteers exploited. How easy it was for them to crash not just our economy but our democracy.

With just two parties chasing swing voters in a small number of marginal constituencies, our first-past-the-post system has pushed both Red and Blue parties to the destructive position of trying to make the disaster of Brexit work.

With just these two parties dominating political debate we have endured a conspiracy of silence about the damage Brexit is wreaking on our country.

But the silver lining in the current political turmoil is that this conspiracy of silence is finally being broken.

It is our duty to break this conspiracy of silence, to keep telling the truth about the damage Brexit is doing to us all. To our economy, to our society and to our reputation in the world.

We are the people who tell that truth, who are not just willing but proud to say that we know that rejoining the EU is the only possible future for the UK.

We are a European Movement and we are on the move. We know from our friends Terry Reintke and Guy Verhofstadt who are with us today that they are keeping the door open and keeping a light on.

We will find our way home.

Molly Scott Cato is a former Green Party MEP and a Senior Vice Chair of the European Movement UK.

Today, Rishi Sunak is our new Prime Minister. He has a momentous task ahead of him: our communities are divided; his party is split, and our country suffers from the worst economic crisis in a generation.  

But his success is now our country’s success, and we must offer him that opportunity to succeed. Now, he must face this reality: the root cause of this instability is Brexit.  

A poorly negotiated, hard Brexit has cut us off from our neighbours, demolished trade and eroded the soul of our country.  

If Rishi wants to save the economy, he needs to fix the Brexit deal. He must urgently calm the markets, guarantee peace and prosperity in Northern Ireland and remove the threat of a trade war with Europe.  

Brexit has now taken out four Prime Ministers. As Sunak enters No. 10 as the fifth since 2016, he must learn from the errors of his predecessors.  

In the meantime, the European Movement UK will do all we can to rebuild relationships across Europe and help the UK find its place back on the world stage. We are the only organisation with the courage to expose the calamity of Brexit and win the Battle for the Soul of our Country.  

Anna Bird 
CEO - European Movement UK

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Since the UK crashed out of the EU, our country has stumbled from one crisis to another. Businesses have collapsed, prices have soared, and hardworking people have paid the price.

Politicians have refused to engage with the economic truth and confront the chaos that leaving the EU has created.

But as Brexit takes out its fourth Prime Minister, it’s time to be honest with the British public: What started as a false slogan on the side of a bus has begun to erode the soul of our country.

And here’s the reality: Brexit still risks fundamentally and forever changing the character of our country for the worse.

But who we are can be decided by the people and shaped by our optimism, no matter how regularly tested it is. Our courage, which runs deep when we need it, can define us. And it can be our empathy, our willingness to see each other not as enemies and traitors but as fellow Britons and Europeans, that can save us.

That is why we must take action to reclaim our country’s soul and restore our future – surely few things can be more important than that.

The next Prime Minister must stop the financial self-harm, halt the hurt and decide who we are as a country.

The European Movement is the only organisation with the courage to expose the calamity of Brexit and win the Battle for the Soul of our Country.

On Thursday 20^th October at the TUC Conference in Brighton, Sir Keir Starmer used a somewhat familiar phrase.

The leader of the Labour party declared a “Battle for the Soul of our Country”, but supporters and members of the European Movement might have felt a sense of DeJa’Vu – that’s because we launched our ‘Battle for the Soul of our Country’ campaign over six months ago. 

Indeed, we took that message right to the heart of the Labour party at their conference in Liverpool, and let’s just say: you couldn’t have missed it.

Perhaps Keir got the idea for the slogan from our stall, t-shirts and badges or the Labour directory – it even made it onto BBC’s Politics Live.

Or perhaps our door hangers pleading with his party to stop side-lining the issue of Europe caught his attention – after all, we did hang them on over 1,000 doors in the hotels Starmer and his MPs were staying in. 

Or perhaps Labour MPs Stella Creasy, Hilary Benn and Catherine West told Keir about the slogan after they hung out with us at our stall or during our Fringe Event “The Cost of Living with Brexit?”

However, we don’t mind Labour using our slogan, in fact we love it. When I was in Liverpool for Labour Conference this year, I saw a party that knows what’s at stake. A party that wants to rebuild our reputation on the world stage and, as a crucial part of that, our relationship with Europe.

There is a lot for pro-Europeans in the Labour party to be optimistic about: Labour is talking about closer ties with Europe and improving the UK-EU deal for a start, and now they are even using our slogan! But now they must be honest with themselves and the British public: Brexit isn’t working and can’t work. 

If Labour is going to steal our messaging, then we want them to sign up to our values too:

• Labour must be bold.
• They must have a vision for rebuilding the UK’s relationship with Europe.
• They must not sidestep or shy away from exposing the real impacts of Brexit.
• They must lay out a path for a closer alignment with our European Neighbours, including improved market access to Europe to help tackle the cost-of-living crisis and protect peace in Northern Ireland.

So, if Starmer is serious about winning the Battle for the Soul of our Country, he needs to do more than pinch our slogan. He needs to start by ending the conspiracy of silence on Brexit.

In 2015 Brexit was merely the policy of Farage’s fringe party. Now, to our shame, it defines all our national policy. But as economies across Europe begin to recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the economic consequences of Brexit are being felt more than ever.

Brexit has brought down four Prime Ministers, ripped parties and communities in half and run aground our country’s economy. Businesses have collapsed, prices have soared, and hardworking people have paid the price.

That’s why we have taken action to reclaim our country’s soul and rewrite our story.

So, I am delighted to see Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour Party talk about joining us in the Battle for the Soul of our country. But here’s the reality: It won’t be politicians and political parties that win this battle. They will always lag behind public opinion. The European Movement is the only organisation with the courage to expose the calamity of Brexit and win the Battle for the Soul of our Country. Anything from anyone else is just the sincerest form of flattery.

Here they introduce themselves in their own words.

Hi, I’m Amelia Hughes 

My interest in politics, and travelling have meant that I have been fortunate enough to work with politicians in Europe and further afield. In the UK I have worked with MPs and local councilors in the North East, seeing first-hand the positive impact the EU has had on that region. Internationally, in Brussels, I conducted research on youth unemployment for S&D MEPs and worked in Essen on a Comenius Project coordinating a programme on youth homelessness. 

In 2018 I studied abroad in Washington DC where I worked closely with the Governor of Maryland and, in the US Capitol, wrote speeches for Congressmen. In 2020 I relocated to Sydney, Australia, where I worked in the United Nations office focusing mainly on how Sustainable Development Goals benefit local communities. I am now living in London where, with EM, I will use my experience to help reverse the calamity of Brexit. 

And I’m Michael Anderson

I have to say that I’m very excited to be onboard. 

Some may remember me from when I was, before commencing in this position with EM, the Coordinator for the Young European Movement. 

I hail from a Brexit stronghold, my beloved Essex. I have a BA in History from University of Southampton and an MSc in Global Environmental Politics & Policy from Birkbeck College, University of London.  

Like Amelia, and many of our expanding team, I’m now based in London where I am – aside from working to help reverse the calamity of Brexit - an active musician and writer.  

Before I joined EM, I gathered years of experience working both in the sustainability sector and as a policy researcher for the grassroots organisation Labour for a Green New Deal, with periods living elsewhere, in the likes of Argentina and Australia. 

We are deeply saddened to hear of the death of her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. In celebrating her life, we are given the opportunity to reflect on her remarkable legacy.

She has shown tireless service to the United Kingdom. She has sought to promote unity and pride in our great nation. And she has committed her reign to improving the lives of millions of people across the UK and around the world. Through this service, she has provided leadership and comfort to all of us, including through times of distress and turmoil.

The European Movement joins the United Kingdom, and the rest of the world, in a collective period of mourning. As a mark of respect, we have paused all campaigning until further notice.

Lord Andrew Adonis
Chair - European Movement United Kingdom