
Why the EU is not the answer to Britain’s growth challenge
Think tank: Centre for Policy Studies
Author(s): Dr Gerard Lyons
August 5, 2024
This report from UK think tank the Centre for Policy Studies calls for any decisions about the UK’s future relationship with the EU to be based on current realities.
The Labour government may be seeking a ‘reset’ of relations in the UK-EU relationship but Keir Starmer should resist calls to rejoin the EU, Single Market, or Customs Union, according to a leading economist.
‘Why the EU is Not the Answer to Britain’s Growth Challenge’ argues that Britain’s growth problems existed before Brexit and that leaving the European Union gives us more flexibility to pursue trade deals and improve regulations in a way that can boost growth.
Single Market or Customs Union membership is repeatedly floated as a ‘solution’ to Britain’s growth challenges, on the basis of questionable statistics, dodgy economic counterfactuals and misleading international comparisons.
The briefing highlights how the anti-Brexit narrative has changed from economic catastrophe to ‘slow puncture’ as disaster has failed to materialise – and calls for any decisions about the UK’s future relationship with the EU to be based on current realities, not poorly constructed hypothetical scenarios.