Today, the Chancellor has said in her spring statement that Brexit has cut the UK off from its closest trading partners.

Rachel Reeves also said she would announce three new changes in a speech in three weeks' time, including 'breaking down trade barriers with our European neighbours.'

It comes a month after the Chancellor said she would push for closer integration with the EU, to reduce the trade barriers put up by Brexit.

The economic impact of Brexit so far in facts and figures 

• Brexit is on course to cut UK trade intensity by 15%, the Government’s independent financial watchdog has warned. (Source: OBR) 
• Brexit has cut the UK economy by £140 billion, while London's economy has lost more than £30 billion. The same report suggests the UK will be more than £300 billion worse off by 2035. (Source: Cambridge Econometrics) 
• The CER uses a similar estimate, putting the economic loss at 5% of UK GDP, or around £130 billion. (Source: CER) 
• Estimates suggest that by 2025, Brexit had reduced UK GDP by 6% to 8%, with the impact accumulating gradually over time. "We estimate that investment was reduced by between 12% and 18%, employment by 3% to 4% and productivity by 3% to 4%." (Source: National Bureau of Economic Research)

So how much could closer trade ties with the EU help the UK's economy?

Research last year showed that deep alignment in both goods and services could grow GDP by 1.7% to 2.2%. Alignment on goods alone could boost GDP by 1% to 1.5%.

Dr Mike Galsworthy, Chair of European Movement UK, said:

"This decade has seen the UK economy on life-support, with some of the worst growth in a century. There is an obvious treatment right on our doorstep, but the government has so far ignored it. Rachel Reeves's comments today in her Spring Statement perhaps signal that they are finally ready to break down the barriers that Brexit imposed on UK businesses, and take real steps to align with our closest trading partner.

"Every month we delay discussing a customs union or single market access with the EU, or dynamic alignment or a proper sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement, more contracts move to Rotterdam or Düsseldorf and never come back. The UK-EU reset cannot just be a summit photo, it must mean market access. The UK's economic woes are the true cost of a bad deal. It is time to stop managing decline and start rebuilding a trading relationship that actually works for British industry."