Poll after poll show most voters think leaving the EU has been a failure. Closer ties with Europe would bring huge rewards
Brexit isn’t working, and the British people know it. Poll after poll, including that unveiled this weekend by More In Common for the Sunday Times, shows that people are feeling the terrible damage caused by the deal forced upon us by Boris Johnson, Kemi Badenoch and the rest of the Conservative party, and want something different. The latest shows less than a third of Britons would vote to leave the EU if a referendum were repeated. There’s no doubt that fundamental change is needed. There’s no doubt the public will is there to make it happen. The question is: will Keir Starmer seize the moment and deliver it?
There are big prizes on offer if he does. Giving our economy the boost it desperately needs, pulling it out of the cycle of low growth and high debt that the Conservatives plunged us into. Helping to raise more funding to lift our NHS and other public services off their knees. And, crucially, showing people that there is a better, more hopeful way forward than the nasty, nonsensical “solutions” they hear from Nigel Farage and his fellow snake-oil salespeople on the right.
Ed Davey is the leader of the Liberal Democrats and MP for Kingston and Surbiton
The UK benefited tremendously from being a member of the EEC then the EU. In fact, the UK is probably the western European EU member that benefited the most of all members. Numbers and figures are clear, from the 70’s to now, the hugely positive impact of being a EU member is visible in the UK macro data. Now, this being said, being a EU member comes with drawbacks and some of the narrative pushed by Brexiteers is somewhat valid. Is it sufficient to justify Brexit ? that’s a question for each citizen to answer from his/her perspective. Not black and white. But one things is 100% certain : the narrative “The UK is losing economically by being a EU member” is totally false and it was a pure political lie.