Robert Paston

What was the reason why there was some issue around the timing of publication?

You know, let's be clear, it is now infusing political debate, because it is now the number the government uses.

And for years, you know, and many would say this is because they were frightened of making the case for getting close to the EU, that, you know, they ran away from the whole debate about the

essentially how much we'd been damaged by Brexit.

So I do think it is significant.

You know, it was quite striking to me when the Chancellor, I think it was earlier this year, started using your 8% number.

What I'd like to do is now to unpick

You know what the transmission mechanism was from that vote to leave the EU and the fact that we got poorer.

I mean, you know, I remember at the time or rather in the run up to the vote, there was quite an important piece of research that the Bank of England did.

And what that said was simply by dint of the cost of access to the world's biggest market going up, you know, the cost of access to that market going up, the cost of trade with that market going up, there would inevitably be less investment by firms.

And that would make us that would be one of the mechanisms that would make us poorer.

Is that something is that is that part of what has come to pass?

I was going to ask you about that because you've got this amazing survey that you do of thousands of companies.

And I think you say it represents something like 10% of the private sector.

Is that right?

This is a very big and therefore reliable survey.

And one of the things I did find shocking was

was just, and talk us through this, just a sheer number of hours that chief financial officers and other senior executives were spending on just adapting to this new trading world.

As a political editor, which I have been for the past few years, living through those years after we voted to leave the EU and before we had the most basic policy,

trading agreement put in place by Boris Johnson when he became prime minister, which, you know, we came into effect at the beginning of