Tag Archives: rejoin eu

Mark Blackburn

Let’s stop tiptoeing around it: we belong in Europe

By Mark Blackburn | Thu 14th May 2026 - 9:45 am

There is a speech I keep coming back to. In the run-up to the 2014 European Parliament elections, Charles Kennedy told the party conference something that cut right to the heart of our political identity. Europe, he said, was in the Liberal Democrats’ DNA. But for too long, he added with characteristic wit, that had stood for “do not acknowledge.” It was time, he argued, to be front-footed, unapologetic and proud in our pro-Europeanism.

Charles was right then. He would be even more right now.

Our current framing on Europe, centred on a customs union, is not just insufficient, it is actively working against us. The evidence to support that view is not anecdotal. It is there in black and white in the new Best for Britain report.

Drawing on YouGov polling of more than 4,000 adults, it contains findings that every Liberal Democrat parliamentarian and activist should read. EU membership is the most popular option with the British public, with 53% in favour and just 32% opposed. But it is among our own voters that the numbers are most striking. A full 84% of Liberal Democrat supporters back the UK rejoining the EU, the highest figure of any party grouping polled.

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Posted in Op-eds | 9 Comments
Mark Corner

What is the best way back into the EU?

By Mark Corner | Mon 20th April 2026 - 12:17 pm

I appreciated Gareth McAleer’s article in Lib Dem Voice on the economic power-up to be had from rejoining the EU, but while I support his desire to rejoin I think a different approach will be more effective.

Economic arguments are always difficult and precision hard to achieve. As the saying goes, an economist is someone who if you ask for a telephone number gives you an estimate. It would be better to say that rejoining the single market will be of obvious economic benefit and leave others to fill in the billions. The alternative view, the Boris Johnson idea that …

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Posted in Op-eds | 20 Comments
Gareth McAleer

Rejoining the EU: A £180 Billion‑Per‑Year Power‑Up for Britain (Part One)

By Gareth McAleer | Mon 13th April 2026 - 11:11 am

Imagine the UK economy suddenly becoming £180 billion richer every single year – not as a one‑off sugar rush, but as a permanent, compounding uplift. That is what rejoining the European Union could mean: a structural transformation that boosts national income, raises living standards, strengthens public finances and restores Britain’s economic confidence. It would mark a deliberate, strategic shift away from managed decline and towards a confident, outward‑looking economic future.

An economy on turbo

Britain’s economy today is worth around £2.7 trillion. Add £180 billion more in real GDP each year and you get a 6–7 per cent permanent uplift – a lasting improvement that compounds over time. These step changes happen when countries remove trade barriers and integrate fully into large markets, allowing businesses to plan, hire and invest with far greater certainty.

Rejoining the EU would cut through customs red tape, restore full access to the single market and send a clear signal that Britain is open for business again. The Office for Budget Responsibility’s analysis of fiscal multipliers shows that deeper trade integration raises GDP permanently. Over a decade, the result is not just recovery but renewal – a richer, more stable UK economy with stronger foundations and better prospects in every region.

More revenue without raising tax

A stronger economy means higher revenues without increasing tax rates. Britain currently collects about 27 to 28 per cent of GDP in taxes, mainly through income tax, national insurance, VAT and corporation tax. As GDP grows, revenues rise automatically through higher wages and profits, rather than through stealth tax raids or emergency fiscal events.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 29 Comments
Gareth McAleer

Reuniting with Europe: Rebuilding What Brexit Broke

By Gareth McAleer | Mon 16th March 2026 - 12:04 pm

Six years after Britain left the European Union, the promise that we would “take back control” rings hollow. The truth is painful: Brexit has weakened our country. It has diminished our prosperity, our standing, and our confidence. What was sold as liberation has instead become a slow estrangement from our closest allies and from the European identity that once helped define us as an open, confident nation.

For Liberal Democrats, the damage goes deeper than trade or economics. Brexit was a rejection of something essential: our belief that Britain’s strength lies in cooperation and shared purpose. It narrowed our horizons and encouraged a politics of resentment and blame. For millions who see themselves as both British and European, it felt like being written out of the story of our own nation.

The Damage Done

Brexit has left marks on every part of our national life. Small firms struggle with new border checks that slow exports and drain their budgets. Farmers face endless forms and higher costs. Musicians and creative workers have lost easy access to European tours. Investment has slumped, and the “global trade revolution” we were told to expect has produced little reward.

Yet the damage is not only economic. It is emotional, generational, and cultural. For young people, the Continent is no longer a place of effortless study, work, and discovery. The loss of Erasmus+ was not a policy detail but a breaking of connection. Freedom of movement, once taken for granted, is now a memory, and many Britons are only beginning to understand what that freedom meant. Families that once moved easily between London and Lisbon or Glasgow and Athens now feel distance where closeness used to be.

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Also tagged | 18 Comments
Rob Parsons

Let’s fix this country first

By Rob Parsons | Sat 2nd January 2021 - 8:55 am

I have thought for a while that Brexit is not just about Brexit. Leaving the EU is only a step on the way for fundamental Brexiters to get what they want, which is to turn Britain into a neoliberal paradise – Singapore on Thames is exactly what they want. That being the case, populism is not going to disappear, because it is still the primary tool for securing that end. Farage has already switched from Brexit to covid: he is adept at latching on to anything that stokes resentment, and we will continue to see the politics of resentment at high intensity for years to come.

For that reason, I think Nick Tolhurst here:

is right about future prospects but wrong about strategy. I’m coming to think more and more that figuring out how to rejoin the EU is the wrong focus, for two reasons. The first is that the populists will use it against us very successfully: it will actually do us more harm than good. The second is that if we are to be acceptable as renewed members of the EU we have to fix this country first. We have massive problems – the voting system which denies power to people, the Parliamentary system which denies power to MPs, the media system which allows newspapers to tell lies without consequence, the tax system which allows rich people to find all sorts of ways to protect “their” money, the economic system which promotes inequality (and inequality kills, as we are seeing ever more with Covid), etc, etc, etc.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 55 Comments
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  • AM
    Wholeheartedly agree. It has been refreshing to hear Liberal Democrat leadership and parliamentarians taking a strong and unapologetic stand that is unequivocal...
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    It is such sad news. I was lucky to get to know Micheal over the last few years (working on a book project for the John Stuart Mill Institute). He reaffirmed fo...
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  • Jack
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