Businesses need us to stop undermining trade with ‘our number one market’ - Yorkshire Post Letters

What a miserable way to end the year, Tony Galbraith (The Yorkshire Post, December 22): “We rarely benefit from political contact with our continental neighbours.”

And untrue, of course. Working closely with like-minded allies is of enormous political and diplomatic benefit to Britain on the global stage. But Mr Galbraith goes on to write about economics, not politics.

Does he really think we’re better off economically outside the European Union? As far back as 2020 – even before we’d formally left – Bloomberg Economics estimated the financial hit resulting from the 2016 referendum result was already as much as the UK had paid into the EU during its 47 years of membership.

Things aren’t improving. The Office for Budget Responsibility reckons long-term UK productivity is going to be permanently four per cent lower than if we’d remained in the EU.

Nonetheless, Mr Galbraith concludes keeping our distance from the EU is better for British manufacturing. Should we believe him, or the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC)?

On December 19, it reported a majority, 60 per cent, of firms trading with the EU found it harder than a year ago: “Difficulties…have not eased.”

The BCC has spelt out the minimum it thinks ministers must do to stop undermining trade with “our number one market”. Sorry, Mr Galbraith. It’ll mean more “political contact with our continental neighbours”.

But why settle for the minimum? Politically, economically and in a host of other ways, Britain will be much better off after rejoining the European Union.