Former Chancellor and Home Secretary Lord Clarke reflects on the urgent need for the UK to rebuild its economic relationship with the EU.

I have always taken the view, throughout my political career, that it was in the national interest for the United Kingdom to be a member of the European Union.

My political life has coincided almost entirely with the UK’s involvement in Europe. I started over fifty years ago, supporting Harold Macmillan’s application to join. As a Government Whip, I helped to secure the cross-party vote for the European Communities Act before we entered in 1973, and it was with genuine regret that my final Parliament turned out to be the one in which we left the EU and gave up the leadership role we had played within it.

I have said for years that leaving has done immense and continuous harm to our economic prospects. Last week’s Budget made clear the scale of the challenges we now face.

The Government talks about growth yet refuses to address the central fact that we have created new barriers between ourselves and the largest free market in the world. 

Regulatory barriers matter more than tariffs in the modern economy. That was the whole point of the Single Market, which the British, under Margaret Thatcher’s Government, did more than any other member state to shape. We benefited from it more than anyone.

To pretend we can restore growth while keeping those barriers in place is simply unrealistic.

A very large proportion of the public who voted to leave the EU did not vote to leave the Single Market or the Customs Union. Most had no reason to know the difference.  

The time has come for those who share my view to say so plainly. Rejoining the Customs Union and the Single Market would bring enormous advantages, and it would allow us to rebuild the close trading relationships that every serious economy depends upon. These are not ideological questions. They go to the heart of jobs, investment and living standards.

The European Movement has an essential role in making the case for a closer relationship with our European neighbours, based on pragmatic interests rather than sentiment. If we can help explain, calmly and clearly, why rejoining the Single Market and Customs Union offers a credible route to economic growth, we will be making a real contribution to the national interest.

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