January may have been a one-off Brexit dip, but EU trade will stay below ‘normal’

Editorial: Mr Johnson and Lord Frost seem determined simultaneously to deny economic reality and to make the damage worse by antagonising the leaders of our most important export market

David Frost, before his elevation to the cabinet, watches Boris Johnson sign the EU trade deal (PA)

The British people seem to understand the effects of Brexit better than their government. An exclusive opinion poll by Savanta ComRes for The Independent has found that twice as many people say leaving the European Union has been bad for trade as say it has been good.

That does not mean, of course, that the voters want to reverse Brexit. Our poll also found that, in a somewhat hypothetical referendum on rejoining the EU, people would vote by 54 per cent to 46 per cent to stay out.

But it does suggest that the British people are well aware that Brexit comes at a price – a reality that ministers are determined to deny. After Friday’s official statistics showing a 41 per cent fall in sales to the EU in January, Lord Frost, Boris Johnson’s new cabinet minister responsible for relations with the EU, said: “The latest information indicates that overall freight volumes between the UK and the EU have been back to their normal levels for over a month now, that is, since the start of February.”