Where Next for the UK as an International Economy?

According to David Henig, after the turmoil of Brexit culminating in the short period of Liz Truss as Prime Minister, UK politics appears to have stabilised to a degree under Rishi Sunak, with the Windsor Framework and likely accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) being clear successes. Underlying issues around the Brexit settlement are however far from settled, poor economic performance being the backdrop for continued arguments over EU-UK relations that easily come to the surface, such as recently with Boris Johnson's resignation statement as an MP. Viewing a General Election as being likely during 2024, David Henig assesses what the current Conservative Government is likely to be able to achieve, and the priorities of a potential future Labour Government.

About the Speaker:

David Henig is Director of the UK Trade Policy Project at the think-tank, European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE), writing extensively on the trade implications of Brexit and what comes next for UK trade policy. For ECIPE, he has also written a series of short papers on globalisation and modern trade, and writes about broader trade issues in a weekly column for specialist trade news service Borderlex. David serves as Expert Adviser to the UK Trade and Business Commission and House of Lords International Agreements Committee. Prior to joining ECIPE in March 2018, he worked for the UK Government including on Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership (TTIP) talks between the US and the EU, in establishing the Department for International Trade after the referendum, and on issues around inward investments from China.