UK shot themselves in the foot by leaving the EU. They could always rejoin.
(for context, review the leave vs stay votes by age cohort: https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/15796-how-britain-vot... ; roughly ~500k voters 65+ die every year in the UK: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsde...)
Leaving the EU has actually helped that, because the membership payments can now be spent on general costs, and it didn't worsen trade or the economy in any noticeable way.
https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/5922/economics/uk-budget-...
The economy saw no impact from Brexit whatsoever. Remarkable but true. Go look for yourself. The huge deficits are structural and driven by unrestrained immigration and welfare spending combined with the ruinous costs of lockdown, which put the debt load onto an unsustainable trajectory. Instead of being stable after lockdowns ended interests costs started continuously rising as a percentage of the budget.
Labour certainly has not decreased the deficit unless you're counting a "reduction" from lockdown costs.
Five key impacts of Brexit five years on - https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdrynjz1glpo - January 30th, 2025
Brexit deal impact in UK is worsening, warn economists - https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd988p00z1no - September 17th, 2024
Brexit’s Lasting Damage Is Looking Inescapable - https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-03-19/brexit... | https://archive.today/1UJgM - March 19th, 2024
New report reveals UK economy is almost £140billion smaller because of Brexit - https://www.london.gov.uk/new-report-reveals-uk-economy-almo... - January 11th, 2024
Crikey. This is really unmoored from facts and data.
Here's a peer reviewed studies in major economic journals saying Brexit had negative affect on UK.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/iere.12541 - devalued pound https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002219962... - increased prices
Do you have any peer reviewed studies showing that it had no effect? THere's more studies showing decreased trade, huge decrease in foreign investments.
While many in the EU may be sympathetic and forgiving, I sense countries like Germany and France want to ensure the UK rejoins as a far more integrated and dedicated member state than they were before. It doesn’t seem like the UK has much bargaining power in any potential application to rejoin.