How exactly could a no-deal Brexit be more economically damaging than the Covid slump?

The Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, has suggested that leaving the EU without a trade deal would do more damage to the UK economy than the Covid crisis. Ben Chu explains how that’s possible

Andrew Bailey: ‘The long-term effects would be larger than the long-term effects of Covid’ (Reuters)

The UK economy plunged by around a quarter during the first half of this year as the pandemic and lockdown crushed activity on a historically unprecedented scale.  

Growth over 2020 as a whole is expected to be around minus 10 per cent, easily the worst performance on modern record.

It’s hard to imagine how anything could be worse than this for the economy.