Why the EU is Not the Answer to Britain’s Growth Challenge

• All major parties acknowledge that achieving sustained economic growth is key to the country’s success but disagree on how to achieve it
• The Government is seeking a new deal with the EU, with the Prime Minister talking of resetting relationships at the recent European Political Community conference
• In some quarters, Brexit is still blamed for recent growth woes, despite evidence to the contrary. A new briefing by leading economist Dr Gerard Lyons argues that rejoining the EU, its Single Market, or Customs Union would not provide a solution to our growth challenge
• Instead, the briefing argues that the major challenges facing the UK are deep-rooted, have long predated Brexit and solutions are not reliant on being in the EU. The UK has had an investment shortfall since the 1970s, a trade deficit problem since the mid-1980s, and regional and other imbalances have persisted for some time, too

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.