Ed Davey unveils plan to join single market and boost defence ties with EU

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Ed Davey unveils plan to join single market and boost defence ties with EU

• Liberal Democrat plan to join single market would boost growth and cut the cost of living
• Andy Burnham urged to end Labour’s “torpor and timidity” on Europe by dropping red lines that have held Britain back
• Liberal Democrat plan includes establishing a new European Security Council to counter threats from Putin and Trump

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey will today (Wednesday 17th June) give a keynote speech setting out plans for a bold new partnership with the EU, including deepening defence ties and joining the single market.

On the eve of tomorrow’s crucial Makerfield by-election and ahead of the 10-year anniversary of the Brexit vote next week, Ed Davey will challenge Andy Burnham to scrap Labour’s red lines on the customs union and single market if he becomes Prime Minister and begin talks immediately on an ambitious new deal with the EU. He will warn that the last decade has shown that Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson’s “Brexit experiment” has failed and that a new approach is urgently needed to turbocharge growth and guarantee the UK’s security.

Ed Davey’s speech today at the European Movement will set out the Liberal Democrats’ plan for a new comprehensive Growth and Defence Partnership with the EU. The plan would include the UK beginning talks immediately on joining the EU’s single market and a customs union, tearing down barriers for business and boosting trade with Britain’s biggest market. This would help to reverse the catastrophic economic damage wrought by the Conservatives’ botched Brexit deal, which estimates suggest cost the country £90 billion in lost tax revenue in 2025 alone.

The Liberal Democrats are also calling for much deeper defence cooperation between the UK and European partners. This would include establishing a European Security Council, which would improve the coordination of Europe’s rearmament drive and ability of allies to deliver NATO’s operational requirements. The speech will set out how the mounting global threat posed by an aggressive Vladimir Putin and an unreliable Donald Trump underlines the critical need for closer UK-EU collaboration on defence. 

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On the damage done by Brexit, Ed Davey is expected to say:

“We hear it on the doorsteps. We see it in the polls. We feel it in our communities: People are fed up. They’ve had enough. Enough of the chaos in Government. The queues at ports and airports. The bills that just keep on going up.

“They know the hard truth that most politicians won’t admit: the Conservatives’ Brexit experiment has failed. And it’s failed all of us. £90 billion pounds a year. That’s how much it’s costing us all as taxpayers. £90 billion, every year. Gone. That’s £250 million every single day.

“Taken away from our schools, our hospitals, our Armed Forces. Taken out of everyone’s pockets, in the form of unfair tax rises. Not because of a pandemic. Not because of a war. Not because of some force of nature out of our control. But because of their Brexit experiment. Boris Johnson. Nigel Farage. And the rest.

“An experiment that has now consumed a decade of British politics. That has tangled British businesses up in pointless red tape. That has pushed up prices for British families. And has left us all poorer.”

On how the world has changed since a decade ago, he is expected to say:

“But what do they say? The ones who caused all this. The people responsible. Farage and the Conservative Party? They say “Tough”. They say you can’t move on.

“They say you can’t question Britain’s relationship with Europe now. You can’t dare to suggest there might be a better way. Doesn’t matter how bad it gets. Doesn't matter how much you’re struggling. You just have to live with it. Well we say “No”. We say Britain shouldn’t have to live with the bad deal they’ve lumped us with. We say our country deserves far better than that.

“Theirs is old thinking. It’s 2016 thinking. The world has changed dramatically since then. It’s time for us to change too. It’s time for us to move on. Move forward.”

On Andy Burnham or whoever becomes the next Prime Minister, he is expected to say:

“Labour’s red lines are holding Britain back. They are hurting the British people. And they are playing into the hands of Farage and Reform. So my message to Andy Burnham, to Wes Streeting – to whoever the next Prime Minister may be – is this: Drop those red lines. Drop them now.

“So we can move on from the torpor and timidity that marks out Labour’s approach to Europe so far. We can put an end to the endless talk of a “reset”, that so far seems to just mean saying “No” more politely than the Conservatives did.

“And we can get on with properly fixing our relationship with Europe. For our economy, for our security, for our future.”

On the Liberal Democrat plan for a bold new deal with Europe, he is expected to say:

“Today, we are calling for a new Growth and Defence Partnership with the European Union.

“A bold new deal that will make Britain richer, safer, and stronger. Including a Customs Union, but also – crucially – taking Britain back into the Single Market.

“The best hope our country has to stop the chaos and end the crisis. And the biggest step we can take back towards membership of the EU. The best future for Britain.”

ENDS

Notes to Editor:

A new Growth and Defence Partnership with the EU

The Liberal Democrats are calling for the UK government to begin talks immediately with the EU on a new Growth and Defence Partnership including:

• Joining the single market as a member of the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) and the European Economic Area (EEA), alongside Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein.
• Forming a new UK-EU customs union.
• A new defence pact, including a new European Rearmament Bank, UK access to the €150 billion SAFE programme, a new European Security Council, and joined-up procurement through the EU’s defence industrial toolkit.

This would fully remove trade barriers to Europe, reversing years of economic damage caused by the Brexit deal negotiated by the Conservative government.

Taken together, this new Growth and Defence Partnership will help to make the UK richer, safer and stronger – and is also an essential step on the road to EU membership, which remains our longer-term objective.

Existing analysis of the damage to the UK economy from Brexit

A recent study from the National Bureau of Economic Research, a leading US-based think tank, found that the economic damage caused by the previous Government’s Brexit deal since 2016 had kept the UK economy up to 8% smaller than it could have been.