Lib Dems unveil 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.

Ed Davey will give a speech at the European Movement to set out the Liberal Democrats’ plan for a new comprehensive Growth and Defence Partnership with the EU.

It comes ahead of three crucial by-elections tomorrow and the 10-year anniversary of the Brexit vote next week.

In his speech, the Liberal Democrat leader will also 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 also 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.

The plan would include the UK beginning talks immediately on joining the EU’s single market and 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 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.

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 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 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."

On 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.”

Welsh Liberal Democrat Westminster Spokesperson David Chadwick MP said:

“Wales was one of the hardest hit parts of the UK by the failed Brexit experiment that was masterminded by the likes of Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson. It’s costing UK taxpayers £90 billion a year.

“Now, the same politicians who got us into this mess are telling us that it doesn’t matter how bad it gets, the country cannot question our relationship with Europe.

“We shouldn’t have to live with the bad deal they’ve lumped us with, people deserve far better than that.

“That’s why we are calling for a bold new deal with Europe to boost growth, create jobs and keep our country safe. It’s the first major step towards giving our children a better future, fixing the cost of living crisis and getting our country back on track.”

ENDS