The B-word the Budget will ignore

On Wednesday, chancellor Rachel Reeves will deliver her Budget to the House of Commons – Labour’s first in 14 years. But, says European Movement UK CEO Nick Harvey, “being outside the European Single Market is costing our economy £115 billion a year and the public finances more than £40 billion a year”.

If Rachel Reeves wants to plug the £22bn fiscal black hole she’s inherited, Harvey says she should begin there. Instead, Brexit will likely be ignored.

“The new government has been quick to recognise the need to deepen the UK’s cooperation with its European neighbours. The chancellor can tinker around the edges, but addressing the economic damage done by Brexit must become a priority. We need an inquiry into what our relationship with Europe could look like. Future membership of the single market and customs union must be part of that conversation.”

Professor Molly Scott Cato, vice president of the European Movement UK said: “We are going to be told that Reeves’s first budget is ‘a budget for growth’, but how is the Chancellor of a small market outside the main trade blocs of the world going to compete and achieve that growth?

“If we seem caught between a rock and a hard place, I can suggest an obvious way out: becoming again part of the single market, and not just for trading purposes. Rejoining the political institutions and taking our rightful place in designing the global bloc that puts its values of environmental protection and social standards at its heart, offers the best future for the UK to flourish in the future global economy.”

Mike Galsworthy, chair of the European Movement UK and founder of Scientists For EU, added that Brexit does not work for working people. “It can’t be made to work, and can’t be forced to work. Red tape is having a crippling impact on our economy, especially UK businesses with supply chains that depend on the EU. The government must capitalise on their reset of our relationship with Europe and deliver long-term stability for UK businesses,” he said.

Galsworthy added: “It is already obvious that Brexit won’t be mentioned on Budget Day. Just as it was during the election, it will once again be the ‘elephant in the room’. A massive issue draining the financial and social well-being of every single one of us – and yet completely ignored as if it does not exist. This absurd situation has to end.”