Buyer’s remorse: why a UK return to the EU looks more likely than ever

Back in 2016, the UK voted to leave the European Union by 52% to 48% – a result so narrow it might as well have come with an asterisk. It didn't settle anything; it just froze the argument in place, and British politics has been arguing with itself ever since. Now the 10-year anniversary has come and gone, and the mood music has changed. What was sold as liberation increasingly looks, to a lot of people, like buyer's remorse dressed up in a Union Jack. The numbers don't flatter the decision. Exports and imports with the UK's largest trading partner have both fallen, and the trade deals signed since 2020 – the ones that were supposed to more than make up for it – don't come close to doing so.