AIBU to think Brexit has played a role in Britain's declining health

[Mangelwurzelfortea]

New research shows that people in the UK are spending fewer years in good health than 10 years ago. We're also worse off than comparable European economies.

Is it just a coincidence that Brexit was 10 years ago? I don't think so - if only for the fact that Brexit dominated politics for so long that nothing got done. And also it resulted in the loss of most of the decent Conservative politicians and we were stuck with absolute idiots running the country for the next 10 years.

www.theguardian.com/society/2026/apr/27/people-in-uk-spend-fewer-years-in-good-health-than-a-decade-ago-study-finds

I was with you until "most of the decent Conservative politicians" 😂😂😂

YABU - Just wait until Lord Nigel leads us to the sunny uplands

Not sure.

I am passionately anti Brexit and all who sail in it, think its probably the worst thing that's happened to the UK since WW2 etc, but I think this is a bit of a stretch.

It's definitely had a huge impact on our economic wellbeing and that will have impacted health but I think that may have been offset by improvements in lifestyle, health education etc. Fewer people smoke than they did 10 years ago (which is probably the single worst thing you can do for your health). Alcohol consumption has declined.

Very hard to prove.

It’s only involvement with politics is priority on spending. I get the impression the UK has several competing issues.

IMO it has more to do with Covid than brexit.

What about all the health professionals that have left the country because of Brexuit?

I never been a tory supporter but I know what OP means

Despite being horrible arrogant smugites, the old school, old style Tories had some sense of the social contract which modern politicians of both colours dont

In terms of the brexit players a the time, someone like Cameron or Osborne or similar, they were fairly moderate compared to now and they believed in the power of us being connected to the EU, despite some reservations (which all countries in the EU have, no one thinks its a perfect system)

So we lost those and the gamble spectacularly failed because it was designed to keep the hardliners quiet and all it did was empower them and make the country more divided. And poorer all round

No, the NHS is failing, but it’s been getting worse for years - long before Brexit.

Brexit is responsible for many things but declining health is not one of them. I think COVID was rather more responsible for the declining health of the nation. More than a million people are still suffering long term affects of that disease.

No it's as a result of the underfunding of the NHS, the increase of management levels within it rather than clinical positions over the last 25+ years.

Population growth and, ironically, lengthening life expectancy, has impacted this.

But a major issue has been the failure of local government to support adult social care. They repeatedly complain about funding issues. But if you take my local council they are rebuilding a pier no one has asked for in a town which already has a pier £50 million. Changed a road layout that no one asked to be changed and changed it back £1.1 mil. Buying a shopping centre, in 35 years after spending £710,000 a year renting it. So that's appropriately £75 million that could be spent on something like adult social care.

Good point!

Haha - I am not a Conservative supporter and never have been, but there were some 'not horrific' One Nation Ones who got booted out by Boris. Which IMO completely destroyed the party and now it's just Reform Lite.

NHS spending is impacted by the fall in GDP which was severely damaged by Brexit.

I agree it's hard to prove BUT the stats do literally show that health outcomes have declined in the UK since Brexit. Is it really such a stretch to link the two things?

The NHS reorganisation and extensive coalition government cuts from 2010 onwards have taken their toll too, evidenced by rising foodbank use, and increased child poverty.

Fair enough 🙂

Hard to tease out how much is Brexit when we consider what the UK has experienced recently.

Largest pandemic for over a century
Russian invasion of Ukraine and subsequent instability
Huge inflation & CoL crisis
Housing crisis
Immigration crisis
NHS crisis
Middle East War & second inflation wave

Yes...it's like saying that petrol prices have gone up since Brexit. It completely ignores the fact that there is a war in the middle east, a war in Ukraine and the UK is following ridiculous net zero targets.

In the last 10 years we have had a world wide pandemic, with many people dieing in their 30s, 40s and 50s which completely skews any statistical analysis. We have had a decline in childhood vaccination. A re-establishment of tb due to migration. As I said before a complete bollocks up of the NHS and social care by local authorities

None of which can be liked to Brexit, no matter how much you'd like it to be

Many if these are not uniquely British though. I would say only the housing and NHS crises are.

I would put it more at austerity, and the aftermath of the financial crisis. We’re poorer. Therefore, we’re sicker.

As for the point the NHS figures declined, there’s a lag between policy and outcomes - so what you’re seeing in the figures in 2016 started five years previously

But every other European country experienced most of these, but are not seeing the same declines in health.

But it still makes it very hard to tease out the impact of Brexit. The housing crisis has also been cited as a major factor.

But the wars and the pandemic have affected everyone yet we're the only Western economy with declining health outcomes. We're also the only one that's sabotaged our own economy by making trade with all our nearest neighbours significantly harder and more expensive, ditto the NHS by making it significantly harder and more expensive to recruit staff.

Obviously it's not just Brexit. I reckon it's a factor though. It's definitely a factor in social care - the government just can't afford it, which hasn't been helped by wiping 6-8% off GDP. Combined with an ageing population and a shrinking job market, that's a massive problem.

A lot of other European countries do not have an immigration crisis or a health service crisis or a housing crisis to the extent of the UK.

So it’s not like we can look at them as a control and conclude ‘Brexit’.

The UK is also one of the most prolific consumers of junk food in Europe and it’s getting worse every year.

They do, though. Our immigration intake is significantly smaller than Germany, which is also experiencing a housing crisis. To name but one.