CEO of European Movement UK, Sir Nick Harvey, looks at why Keir Starmer is right to look at the Single Market as a solution for the UK.

Late last week, speaking to reporters during his recent visit to China, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that he wants to “go further” in aligning the UK with the EU Single Market because it is “in our national interest.”  

He also said this on Laura Kuenssberg’s show at the start of the year. And he has said this, twice publicly now, for good reason – both the numbers and the public back it.  

The numbers support it 

The Single Market remains the largest trading bloc in the world, responsible for 41% of the UK’s exports in 2024, and its absence is felt every day by British firms. 

Through leaving the Single Market, in the UK we are exporting less, we are employing fewer people and prices are going up. 

For the UK, joining the Single Market would: 

• Eliminate trade barriers for most goods and services 

• Control and even lower consumer prices 

• Allow capital, goods and people to move freely. 

There is also increasing talk in Westminster of the UK negotiating a customs union with the EU. This idea is being driven forward by the Liberal Democrats, the Greens, Labour backbenchers and even Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy. 

Joining the customs union would undoubtedly have benefits, but those would be much more significant if coupled with closer alignment with the Single Market – and even more if we actually join it. 

The Institute for Fiscal Studies stated that joining the Single Market would add a 4% increase to the UK’s GDP. 

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) maintains that being outside the Single Market has reduced the UK's overall trade intensity (integration into the global economy) by roughly 15%. The UK is a huge market for the EU, providing 51% of the bloc’s imports. Both parties have an interest in increasing the trade intensity between us and, especially on the UK side, of moving back up from the 15% decrease. 

For more on the numbers underlining the economic impact of the UK leaving the EU, see a wide range of sources in our recent news piece here. 

Now, where the PM says ‘alignment’ with the Single Market, the evidence says that we should go further – join the Single Market. 

Alignment with the Single Market leaves the UK as a ‘rule-taker’, as we are now.  

Joining it without being an EU member state will mean the same, but to a lesser extent as the UK would be closer to the table and consulted much more. 

Alignment means lingering customs checks. Joining it will eliminate customs checks. 

Joining also means annual payments, but these would be far outweighed by the economic boost that joining the Single Market would bring. Some of the initial reports on this suggest that the annual contribution is anywhere between £8-9billion, whilst the projected added value is around £80-90billion. 

This is why the answer is not alignment with the Single Market, but joining it fully. This will bring genuinely huge benefits to an economy which needs a sustained shot of adrenaline.   

The public support it 

For example, a recent poll by Opinium, commissioned by European Movement UK, found that 75% favour joining the Single Market to lower taxes. 

Another poll in December 2024 by the European Council on Foreign Relations found that a “majority (54%) of Britons who voted to leave the EU would now accept a return to free movement in exchange for access to the single market”  

More than joining the Single Market, a YouGov poll in early January of this year found that “50% of British voters would now choose to rejoin the European Union”. 

Even a quick search online and you will find a lot of polls telling the same story. 

Time to join, not align with, the Single Market 

Across the UK, something has shifted in the conversation about Europe. In communities, in boardrooms and now, increasingly, in Downing Street, there is a growing acceptance in the UK that the story we were told about life outside the EU does not match the experience people across the UK have endured over the past few years.  

Now, after a long period of denial, the party of government has begun to acknowledge what many of us, including Keir Starmer himself, have said since 2016: Britain’s prosperity is bound up with the success of our closest neighbours.  

The government’s current red lines on Europe were presented as fixed, yet they are already bending under economic pressure, but this should not surprise anyone. When growth is weak and public finances are stretched, clinging to self-imposed limits becomes harder to justify. 

This is not about replaying old arguments or questioning how people voted nearly a decade ago. This is about recognising where we are now and deciding where we want to be. The national interest is not served by pretending that isolation has made us stronger. It is served by facing facts and acting on them. 

Britain is a European country by geography, by history and by shared values. This is why bringing the UK back to the heart of Europe and the Single Market is not a leap into the unknown. It is a practical step towards economic renewal and a more confident role in the world.