'It's an awful lot harder to do business': How Leeds feels about Brexit 10 years on

Chris Hill remembers the day vividly.

With Nigel Farage’s dejected face splashed on the television screen and the polls predicting that the country had voted to remain in the European Union, he went to bed with a sense of relief. But it wasn’t to last.

He said: “My six-year-old son came running in the living room in the morning and even he could tell something was wrong.”

The owner of Latitude, the award-winning wine and liquor merchants on The Calls, had been certain that leaving the international community would lead to higher costs, more trade barriers and greater frustration.

And he believes that in the 10 years since the referendum, he has been proven categorically correct.

“I was so deflated because simple arguments had won”, he said. “The promises of controlling our borders and getting sovereignty from Brussels and having £350m for the NHS were all absolute rubbish and I knew it.”

And while other residents and business owners, those who voted leave and remain, also feel that the costs of Brexit have outweighed the positives, there are those who stand by their decision to leave.

Mr Hill though, remains as ardent as ever.

He explained that before the UK officially left the EU at the start of the 2021, his company would import wine from the likes of Southern France, Italy and Spain with just the one customs check on the continent, after which it would be ferried from Calais and distributed to Yorkshire.

But, he added: “After we left the single market, little barriers were put up along with the price of distribution.

“By liberating ourselves from Brussels bureaucracy, we still had to redo all of that paperwork because it still had to have standards of labels and qualities.

“What used to be a frictionless single market has been replaced by nothing but friction.”

He said that he estimated there is now six times the amount of paperwork faced as products get shipped to the UK, and that this has led to significant increases of costs. It is also taking longer to distribute products to the country.

Mr Hill said: “The price of wine has stayed within inflation but whereas it used to cost 70 to 100 euros, it went up to 300 euros. And then because of the increase of fuel from the Russian invasion of Ukraine it went up even higher and that same box now costs 600 or so.

“And if there’s any problems then it gets held up at Calais.

“The English food and drink market used to be the most attractive to distribute to for centuries because we don’t make our own.

“The fact of the matter is that the red tape and distribution you have to go through has got significantly more expensive and it has become an awful lot harder to do business. We businesses have had to soak up all of these things.”

He said that some merchants in Europe have stopped selling to the UK due to the increase of regulations, and that businesses distributing to the EU from Yorkshire, such as craft breweries, are feeling the increase of costs.

Mr Hill said: “My frustration with all of this is that nobody had it on the side of a bus in 2016. But everyone knew it was going to clog up our distribution lines.”

He added that he believes that the impact of Brexit has been drowned out by other issues such as Covid and the jump in fuel prices caused by global conflicts.

“The truly frustrating thing is that a Brexiteer can now point at these things and say it’s not their fault.”

Asked about a return to the EU, Mr Hill said: “I think there’s going to be a demographic point when enough young people who realise how much friction we have added to the prices might actually start to win the argument.”

One of those who still stands by his decision to vote leave is Joseph Laughton, 51, a fishmonger whose family have set up in Kirkgate Market for 115 years. However, he remained disappointed at how the exit from the union had been played out.

“All it’s done is make going on holiday harder”, he said. “There’s not been any benefits. We were mis-sold. It was just political collateral.”

He said that he had wanted to see tighter regulations on the country’s borders through “some kind of points system” akin to Australia, adding: “It’s really important to have a rich mix but the floodgates have opened and it’s not been a gentle integration.”

Another stall holder who sells mobile phone equipment, who did not want to be named, said that after Brexit he began importing stock from China instead of Europe due to the increase of costs.

He said that business had been “struggling” for years and that costs keep going up, while he said he has seen more issues in the city in recent years.

“The crime rate is going up”, he said. “They are stealing from stalls every day. People don’t have work so they want easy money.”

Asked if he would welcome another referendum, he said: “I’m not really bothered now. It’s happened.

“I’m thinking of selling my business and sitting at home on benefits.

“It’s discouraging.”

We also spoke to residents around Leeds city centre for their views about the anniversary, which you can watch at the top of this page.

Among them was 33-year-old trainee solicitor Jordan Crowther from Wakefield, who said: “I voted to leave, which I do regret now. I feel at the time we were told it would be a better thing to do - that there would be more money for the NHS - but looking back now I feel that nothing’s actually changed. If anything it’s gotten worse.

“Nobody really helps out because they think it’s our own fault for leaving. They are leaving us to deal with the consequences.

“I think we were lied to. And I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that.”