Tories Pay the Price for the Harms of Brexit
The Conservative government has damaged Britain’s most important trading relationship — and hurt itself immensely in the process.
Boris Johnson poses for photographs after signing the Brexit trade deal with the EU.
Photographer: Leon Neal/Getty Images EuropeThis is part of a series on what 14 years of Tory rule have delivered for Britain’s economy, society and standing in the world. The challenges awaiting the next government are numerous.
Most of the time, trade is an arcane subject only of interest to trade specialists and assorted business lobbies — and, of course, the editors of The Economist. But every now and again, it shifts from the far periphery to the molten core of British politics. This happened in the 1840s with the abolition of the Corn Laws, in the 1900s with the advent of imperial preference, in the 1970s with Britain’s entry into the European Common Market and then again in 2016 with Brexit.