Why is northern ireland’s economy powering ahead of britain? Because of brexit. — scottish national party

This week saw an IMF report indicating that Brexit has ‘drained life out of UK economy’. According to the IMF, the UK’s economy only grew 0.1% in 2023, and will only grow at 0.7% by the end

of this year. In comparison the average for advanced economies will be 1.8%, while across the world it will average 3.2%. But there is one part of the UK that is seeing economic improvements

surging ahead of the rest of the UK. Mark Magill, the Principal Economist at Ulster University and its Economic Policy Centre, set out a series of tweets this week showing how Northern

Ireland is faring in terms of jobs and wage growth over the last week. These are not just dull statistics. Remember, economic figures like this affect all of us because they dictate how much

money there is available for governments to fund services like hospitals, doctors, schools and house building. Other recent economic data has also seen strong growth in the first quarter of

2024. So, what could explain this turnaround in Northern Ireland’s economic fortunes compared to the rest of the UK? That it still effectively remains in the EU’s single market cannot be

overlooked. Even former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was hailing it. As Professor Thiemo Fetzer of the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick has pointed out, Northern Ireland’s

economy has barely been affected by Brexit compared to other parts of the UK. But this situation came about for two reasons. First, like Scotland, Northern Ireland voted to ‘Remain’ in the

EU – albeit by a lower percentage than Scotland. Secondly, as a co-sponsor of the Good Friday Agreement, the government of the Republic of Ireland argued in favour of a special deal for

Northern Ireland because of its ‘Remain’ vote. By doing so it brought in the full weight of the EU to support Northern Ireland’s pro-EU position: In contrast Westminster ignored Scotland’s

‘Remain’ vote – a stance that didn’t go unnoticed with people in Scotland. This was despite the Westminster party politicians promising before the 2014 referendum that Scotland would be

treated like an equal partner in a UK that was in the EU. As the then Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, said in 2019 of Ireland being an EU member: _“…IRELAND FOR THE FIRST TIME IS ABLE TO ACT ON

EQUAL TERMS TO ITS LARGER AND MORE POWERFUL NEIGHBOUR…”_ As the latest economic statistics from Northern Ireland and the experience of Ireland with the EU show, equal partnership is best for

Scotland as an independent country whether it be the economy or democratic accountability. _This article was produced by the SNP’s Research and Rebuttal Unit._