The United Kingdom is very unlikely to re-join the European Union as the process "would be a total disaster," Francis John Cole, a former European Commission civil servant and British political expert, told Sputnik
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st February, 2023) The United Kingdom is very unlikely to re-join the European Union as the process "would be a total disaster," Francis John Cole, a former European Commission civil servant and British political expert, told Sputnik.
Tuesday marked the three-year anniversary of the UK's exit from the EU, though the country remained in the single market until the end of 2020. Now, being faced with the cost of living crisis, more and more Britons start to regret Brexit.�
"It is impossible and totally out of question to get back to the EU... Re-applying to the EU would be a total disaster and nobody thinks seriously about that," Cole, who was a close adviser to Nigel Farage, the leader of the Reform UK right-wing party advocating a no-deal Brexit, said.�
The expert noted that "a huge economy such as Britain would "take ages" to re-join the EU, pointing to the Balkan candidate countries, which either took years to join the bloc or are still in the process of gaining EU membership.
"Britain has regained its sovereignty, and must still sever the ties with the European Courts of Justice," Cole told Sputnik.
Even though a majority of the UK population voted to leave the EU, followers of the "Regrexit" movement are gaining momentum amid the tough global situation, but their numbers are not significant enough to consider rejoining the union, Cole said.�
"On June 23, 2016, 52% of the Brits voted for Brexit. It is normal that many complain today, but 45% of the population thinking that the situation is worse rather than better is not such as strong rejection of Brexit and the crisis we all go through cannot be attributed to Brexit, or to Brexit alone," the expert added.
In a recent poll by the Statista statistics portal, 54% of the Brits said that leaving the EU was a mistake, while only 34% thought Brexit was the right decision.
In June 2016, 51.8% of UK citizens voted for terminating the country's membership in the EU, against 48.1% of those who voted for London to stay in the union.
