Jacob Rees-Mogg says UK’s economic woes ‘very little to do with Brexit’
Jacob Rees-Mogg has insisted the UK’s economic woes are “very little to do with Brexit” with other European countries experience worse problems.
The Brexit opportunities minister made his remarks this morning on LBC, when asked by host Andrew Marr whether the “effect of Brexit has been to raise barriers” on trade and movement.
Rees-Mogg, who was a staunch supporter of the UK’s exit from the European Union, said the country had simply “taken control of our borders, so we now decide who comes in here” which he insisted was a “pretty important gain from Brexit that people wanted.”
This comes as the UK continues to suffer form crippling inflation of more than nine per cent, with the cost of living rising, fuel prices soaring and strikes continuing to loom over the economy.
He insisted that “in terms of people’s concerns economically, these are headwinds faced across the world.”
“The government is tackling a global economic problem. It is an inflationary problem and it is a supply chain problem.”
The economic problems are “very little to do with Brexit” he added, citing external factors such as “cities in China still being closed” and the continuing impact of Covid on the work force.
He commented that “these are headwinds faced across the world that inflation is running across the world. Germany, has higher food price inflation than the UK does. we’ve had same queues at Heathrow.
“The government is tackling a global economic problem, it is an inflationary problem.”
When asked whether Brexit had increased or decreased red tape, he said the UK government is “looking at the broader global markets.”
” So we’re reducing red tape in relation to other countries. And that’s really important. We could get a trade deal with India by the end of this year. That is more than a billion people. That’s a really fantastic opportunity, which we couldn’t do in the EU because he was too slow and sclerotic to get its act together and negotiate”.