It's easy to see why. Since Brexit, the economy is smaller, food costs more and taxes are higher. Prime ministers don't last long; the country's two traditional governing parties lag behind a populist force in opinion polls.

What's wrong with UK politics?

Larry the cat, who resides at 10 Downing Street as Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office, is living with his sixth prime minister since the Brexit vote. His current housemate, prime minister Keir Starmer, is barely hanging on, with calls to resign after the right-wing Reform UK party made big gains in local elections in May.

Successive governments have struggled to get a handle on the UK's problems, particularly the economy. British trust in their system of government hit a record low in 2024.

Support for the two traditional parties of power, Labour and the Conservatives, has slumped to 19% each in one poll, behind Reform UK and barely ahead of the Greens. Since the UK voting system rewards one big winner and doesn't favour coalitions, it's harder to offer an alternative if Reform UK also did well in a general election.

What happened to the economy?

The UK's gross domestic product is up to 6% smaller than it would have been if it had stayed in the EU, said John Springford of the Centre for European Reform told The European Correspondent, citing his economic model of Brexit losses. Some estimates even place that number near 8%.

Taxes have also gone up. “Perhaps 50% of the tax rises that we've had since 2021 wouldn't have been necessary if those Brexit costs hadn't happened,” he said.

A shrinking economy makes it harder to manage public debt, which soared during the pandemic when governments lost tax revenue and tried to support businesses and households.

Public services, such as healthcare, are suffering, and goods trade has fallen as UK exporters struggle with the extra costs and hassle to comply with EU rules as a non-member. The EU buys about 40% of all UK exports and accounts for half of UK imports.

“The clearest visualisation of the Brexit effect is business investment,” said Springford. “It just absolutely stagnates from 2016 to about 2022,“ even as investment in similar countries grew.

Low investment prevents businesses from buying better equipment or expanding, with a knock-on effect on how many workers they hire and how much they pay them.

Is this all because of Brexit?

Not entirely, but it made a bad situation worse. The UK economy was hit hard by the 2008 financial crisis, and wages have fallen in real terms as prices increased, meaning many people are poorer. Government debt has more than doubled since then.

Bond investors, who buy that debt, are now more worried about how it can be paid back. They are charging more to hold UK debt, outpacing Italy, which has some of the EU's highest public debt.

So were any of Brexit's promises fulfilled? Migration was a big issue for Brexit voters and right-wing populist parties. Supporters blamed the EU for the UK's surge in EU immigrants, many of them Polish, after the 2004 EU enlargement.

The International Monetary Fund warned this month that the UK either needed to reduce public spending or find ways to raise more taxes. Neither are great options for an unpopular government.