{"id":214452,"date":"2025-06-26T00:03:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T00:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/214452\/"},"modified":"2025-06-26T00:03:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T00:03:12","slug":"brexit-was-act-of-self-harm-says-mersey-business-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/214452\/","title":{"rendered":"Brexit was \u2018act of self-harm\u2019 says Mersey business leader"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nine years ago this week the UK voted to leave the European Union and Downtown in Business chief executive Frank McKenna claims Liverpool city region businesses have paid a heavy cost.<b> Tony McDonough reports<\/b><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-64440\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/brexit-4011711_1280-e1612954686754.jpg\" alt=\"brexit, freedom of movement\" width=\"746\" height=\"453\"  \/>Britain voted to leave the EU in 2016 in a referendum<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Downtown in Business (DiB) chief executive Frank McKenna claims Brexit was the \u201cgreatest act of self-harm the UK has inflicted on itself in modern history\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Nine years ago this week the British public voted in a referendum to leave the European Union (EU) in a 52-48% outcome. However, Frank has launched a scathing critique of the economic and political consequences of the decision.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/downtowninbusiness.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DiB<\/a>, a Liverpool-based networking and lobby group that operates across the UK, claims that Brexit has left businesses burdened with red tape, labour shortages, reduced investment, and slower growth.<\/p>\n<p>Frank says city regions such as Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds have paid a heavy price ever since. He examined: \u201cBrexit was sold as an opportunity for growth and sovereignty, but the reality for the business community has been quite different.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we\u2019ve seen is an economy saddled with bureaucracy, a shrinking pool of skilled workers, and city regions losing competitiveness on the global stage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Office for Budget Responsibility estimates that Brexit has knocked 4% off the UK\u2019s potential GDP\u2014a larger long-term hit than either the financial crash or the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-76233\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/photo-04-06-2019-14-27-47-e1615135915711.jpg\" alt=\"Frank McKenna\" width=\"750\" height=\"484\"\/>Downtown in Business chief executive, Frank McKenna. Picture by Tony McDonough<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur members are ambitious, forward-looking companies who want to trade, hire, and grow,\u201d added Frank. \u201cInstead, they are weighed down by customs barriers, labour shortages, and lost investment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe so-called \u2018Brexit dividend\u2019 has turned out to be a mirage. It\u2019s time for a serious conversation about accelerating the rebuilding of our economic relationship with Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lbndaily.co.uk\/river-capital-hails-2bn-boost-for-uk-ai-sector\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>READ MORE: River Capital hails \u00a32bn boost for UK AI sector<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lbndaily.co.uk\/mersey-legal-group-set-to-secure-new-investment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>READ MORE: Mersey legal group set to secure new investment<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>DiB is calling for the government to build on the recent progress made at the UK\/EU Summit by going further and faster to repair the UK\u2019s relationship with the European Union, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Agreements on mutual recognition of standards and qualifications.<\/li>\n<li>Sensible, flexible migration policies to address chronic skills shortages.<\/li>\n<li>Renewed cooperation on student exchanges, research, and security.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Frank said: \u201cThis isn\u2019t about reversing Brexit, but about being honest about the damage it has done\u2014and being pragmatic about how to fix it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIgnoring the world\u2019s largest trading bloc on our doorstep is economically illiterate. We need leadership from government, and from business, to rebuild the bridges that Brexit burned.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nine years ago this week the UK voted to leave the European Union and Downtown in Business chief&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-214452","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114746740420349050","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}