‘Staggering’ cost of Brexit red tape for UK businesses revealed - The Independent

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UK businesses have been hit by a “staggering” £7.7bn Brexit red tape bill to trade with the European Union in just four years, new analysis reveals.

Post-Brexit paperwork has been blamed in part for a huge fall in trade with the EU, with M&S admitting it had to rent a warehouse just to store documents.

The Independent revealed last year that Brexit had created a “mind blowing” nearly two billion extra pieces of paperwork for businesses – enough to wrap around the world 15 times.

Now, official HMRC figures show UK traders’ costs topped £1.8bn in 2022 alone to cover the administrative created by import and export customs declarations.

Applying the benchmark cost of £48 for all of the 160.4m declarations filed between 2022 and 2025, the total comes to at least £7.7bn.

Andy Burnham is poised to sign a new agricultural foods deal with the EU later this month but this will only cut some of the costs, with most sectors of the economy still shouldering the extra burden.

Lib Dem Europe spokesperson Al Pinkerton, who obtained the figures and whose party carried out the analysis, said they laid “bare the crushing price of red tape holding our economy back”.

He said: “Billions of pounds that should be fueling jobs and innovation are instead swallowed up by Brexit bureaucracy.

“The prime minister himself admits that pointless paperwork shouldn't strangle business.”

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