The new report that spells out the waste and muddle of the UK’s response to Brexit

The so-called bloated eurocrats of Brussels – all 32,000 of them – must be laughing into their foaming steins of blanche beer.

Because in order to replicate what all 32,000 of these much-maligned workers do for the whole of the European Union (which comprises 27 countries), the UK has found it can only do with 100,000 new civil servants recruited in the wake of Brexit. And despite that hiring spree, we are still failing to deal properly with the consequences of leaving the EU.

That is the conclusion of a damning report into how the UK government has managed Brexit from The UK in a Changing Europe, the pre-eminent research body in this area.

To be fair some of the 100,000 will have been taken on to deal with the fall-out from Covid but even so, it is a staggering increase. How on earth do we need more civil servants than the whole of the European Commission, when we have broken free?

Well, for a start we have found that Brussels did quite a lot of heavy lifting. We have had virtually no trade experts or negotiators for decades and have had to recruit and train thousands of very well-paid people to replace the team in the EC which used to negotiate for all of the EU. Think about it: You need pretty much the same-sized team for one country as for you do for one trade bloc.

The same kind of thing has happened with the regulation of business, takeovers, mergers, acquisitions, market rigging, monopolies and all the rest. Brussels used to do these things for us and with considerably more sway than we could manage. Now we have had to rebuild a huge team of experts to do it all again.

There is another long list of things we need now that we didn’t need before – border officials, vets and pen pushers to check the forms that no one needed before, people to collect the charges that never existed before, officials to manage and check farm payments and new departments to cope with regional policy and spending, new lending bodies to copy what the EU used to do for us.

The UK in a Changing Europe report is replete with examples of the cost of Brexit that have been virtually hidden until now. Just red tape, duplication and muddle account for a lot of it, but then there is the complete political incompetence.

Endless changes of ministers, endless changing of minds over regulation and standards which have left the Civil Service and business pulling their hair out. Agencies have been set up and then undermined immediately by ministers who don’t like their decisions. Eight years after leaving, the government is unable to even come up with a consistent policy because it is terrified of its own backbenchers.

There is no idea of what we should be doing and what we should have left to the EU, no idea of which old laws need to stay and which new laws are necessary or how to change them for the better. There is less money for regional funds and devolved governments, the mess has damaged London’s relationship with Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The British civil service still prides itself on its efficiency, pragmatism and professionalism but it has been forced to deal with the car-crash of Brexit with no leadership, no consistency and no direction.

And then to add insult to injury the Tory government blames the civil service for “Brexit not going to plan”.

As if it ever had a plan.