Taking a short break from his usual Health remit, Cabinet leading light, Jeremy Hunt, gave an upbeat assessment of Brexit Britain during an interview on Radio 4’s Today Programme (26th January).
Despite there being an estimated one per-cent decline in the overall “growth” of the economy, which some forecasters say is the equivalent of £10 billion (curiously enough, the amount Britain pays to the EU in membership fees) the British economy stands on the brink of major trade deals – especially with North America. Furthermore, the U.K. continue to experience much higher employment rates than those of the Eurozone (which is struggling with the extraordinary figure of up to 40 per cent youth unemployment in EU states such as Spain and Greece).
Despite campaigning for a Remain vote, and expressing support for a second referendum – but on the final terms of the EU Brexit deal – Jeremy Hunt spoke strongly and warmly about how Britain is now able to make sovereign decisions: deciding exactly how and when we converge or co-operate with other nations and trading blocs.
Buoyed up by much stronger forecasts of economic success from the Bank of England (and we recall how different its view was on the eve of the referendum in 2016), Jeremy Hunt provided an optimistic view of the coming year. He also described the Prime Minister’s Brexit vision as one of complete clarity – Theresa May having articulated a definite and compelling outline of our post-EU future during last year’s activation of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty (the mechanism by which a state leaves the EU).
