British companies have filled in 48 million customs declarations and 140,000 export health certificates since Britain left the EU.

The UK’s much-vaunted post-Brexit trade deals will only increase the country’s GDP by a minuscule amount over the next 15 years, a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) reveals today.

Exporters forced to fill in 48 million customs declarations and 140,000 health certificates over eight-month period.

The government paid out £97m to consultants for Brexit preparations, a watchdog has found.

The U.K. government has spent at least 4.4 billion pounds ($5.7 billion) preparing for Brexit since the 2016 referendum, according to figures released by the National Audit Office.

The British government has spent about 70% of the funds allocated to cover the cost of Brexit preparations. The money mostly went to cover staff costs, new infrastructure and gathering external expertise.

Johnson's much-trumpeted FTAs “barely scratch the surface of the UK’s challenge to make up the GDP lost by leaving the EU”.

The U.K. government’s preparations for a no-deal Brexit took “significant time and resources” away from planning for a potential pandemic, a major report found.

The 22,000 civil servants working on EU withdrawal amount to 5 per cent of Whitehall total.

Philippa Whitford said civil servants had been distracted by Brexit in the year before the first coronavirus lockdown.

An investigation has been launched into the £120million so-called "festival of Brexit".

Publicity splurge was much-mocked at the time for leaving people in the dark about the preparations they should make.