The ONS said the trend had slowed down both in the “supply chain adjustments made since leaving the EU” and in an e-market boom due to the coronavirus pandemic. Online shopping as a percentage of all purchases increased during the pandemic, reaching 38% at the beginning of last year. Although it has fallen to 28% since then, this compares with 8% at the beginning of 2011 and 19% shortly before the first lockdown. Jacob Rees-Mogg, who was appointed Minister for Brexit Opportunities earlier this year, said he would help “liberate the economy”. In a speech to a parliamentary committee in March, the Northeast Somerset MP said it was his job to get rid of “gilded” EU regulations. He told the panel: “What is the vision for the opportunities for Brexit is that we need to have a more efficient economy, that we need to have supply-side reforms, that we need to get rid of the unnecessary, often gilded regulation imposed on us by the European Union. “Very often we were voted for in the Council of Ministers, we have things that came up with a qualified majority or we abstained for things because we knew we would lose at that stage. “This is about liberalizing the economy.” This is not the first time Mr Rees-Mogg has spoken out about the repeal of EU regulations. In another appearance before a parliamentary committee in 2016, shortly after the referendum, he suggested that the United Kingdom adopt Indian emissions standards. He said: “We could, if we wanted, accept emission standards from India, America and Europe. READ MORE: “Greater split in France now than the UK over Brexit in 2016”: Farage hits “In the long run, Brexit has a bigger impact than a pandemic,” he said. Already, the UK economy lags behind most other major economies when it compares its GDP in the third quarter of 2021 with just before the outbreak of the pandemic in the fourth quarter of 2019. Trade with the EU has been hit hard by Brexit. According to the OBR, UK exports of goods to the EU fell by 45 percent in January 2021, more than the decline in exports recorded at the beginning of the pandemic.
