No longer “the economy stupid”: how muddled economics contributed to a chaotic Brexit

The Faustian bargain at the heart of Brexit can be portrayed as a trade-off between enhanced control and economic benefits. Most commentators expect the UK economy to take some sort of hit from leaving the UK, but in the words of one prominent ‘leave’ supporter, it would be a ‘price worth paying’, to regain control over decision-making.2 For convinced Brexiteers, a UK unshackled from the EU will rapidly transform itself to be able to take advantage of opportunities in emerging markets and other dynamic parts of the global economy, while ‘remainers’ see distancing the UK from its largest market as an egregious act of self-harm. Both sides have been culpable of misleading statements. Similar dissembling occurred in relation to the public finances. The article explores how competing, poorly understood and often incoherent interpretations of economic propositions fed into Brexit, leading to misguided policy decisions and confusion in the debates around how to reset the UK’s economic relationship with the EU.