Brexit hasn't increased food prices

The problem here is not Brexit, it’s the reaction to, the policies that follow, Brexit:

Brexit has fuelled surge in UK food prices, says Bank of England policymaker

Not really, no. There is a sense in which it has, the pound fell in foreign value, so imports become more expensive. But that’s not the manner in which we’re being told that prices have been forced up:

Researchers at the LSE’s Centre for Economic Performance warned last week that Brexit had added almost £6bn to UK food bills in the two years to the end of 2021, with border delays, red tape and other costs increasing the price of food by about 3% a year.

Dhingra said three-quarters of UK imports were from the EU, which meant “naturally, if non-tariff barriers start to kick in there, we are going to see that – not fully but manifest to some degree – in food prices.”

We agree that all of those are bad things, will have pushed food prices up. But they’re not the result of Brexit. They’re the result of policies adopted after Brexit. One of the major points about Brexit being that we’re able to make our own policies for ourselves of course.

So, if we find the costs of these non-tariff barriers to be too high to bear then let’s stop having these non-tariff barriers. On the grounds that we find them too high to bear.

Perhaps the benefits of those barriers are higher than £6 billion. We think it doubtful but then we’re free traders after all. But if no one can point to any result from them which is worth the £6 billion costs to us then let’s do away with them.

After all, the aim and point of Brexit was that we can have local policies for local people. So, let’s do that, have local policies that benefit local people.