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We're mailing all MPs with this response to the Rejoin debate tomorrow March 24. To add your views, go to our template letter and use to mail your MP, ideally with something local and personal. Here is the text you can use / adapt. Make it personal.

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2. Send to MPs of your choosing.? MP email addresses follow this format?

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so Keir Starmer would be [email protected]?

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SUBJECT : URGENT: Rejoin EU debate, UK Parliament Monday March 24, 2025

Dear [name],

I have read the materials from the UK Parliament website regarding the debate on Rejoining the EU on Monday 24th March and prepared this document as a series of responses to the points raised in the research briefing.? I urge you to attend the debate and read the book Rejoin EU: Reboot Britain, endorsed by Lords Heseltine, Newby, with assent from the Greens, Lib Dems and even some Labour MPs. This has become both urgent and important in the wake of Trump 2.0, Putin’s continuing threats and the security and intelligence implications for Britain and Europe.

Responses to research briefing

• We will make Brexit work but not rejoin the EU.

Since the 2024 General Election, the global landscape has changed beyond any reasonable predictions.? A withdrawal of the US from global security and as a trusted trade partner means that we must reassess our decision to remain in isolation on the world stage.? The current strategy of ‘making Brexit work’ will deliver ‘death by 1000 ameliorations’.? It is still death, albeit a slow one.? Sustainable growth cannot be delivered or realistically promised under such a diagnosis.? It has become painfully obvious that Brexit is not working and will not work.? When the facts change, we change our minds.? To continue down this path will further encourage voters to seek more radical choices in local and ultimately national elections.

• Applications to join the EU require applicant countries to respect EU values, including human rights, democracy, and the rule of law.

Britain certainly needs to remedy the English exceptionalism and transactional Brexit negotiations which destroyed our relations with European partners and the EU.? Substantially, the vast majority of the Brexit culture carriers have been removed from power or thoroughly discredited. More than 60% of the public now understand that Brexit was a failure in statecraft and the referendum would have been deemed illegal if it had been anything other than advisory. Even Nigel Farage has now backed away from demonising legal migration as part of a strategy to take more votes from the centre.

• Would Britain even qualify to rejoin?

Although Britain misbehaved badly during Brexit negotiations conducted by Boris Johnson and David Frost, Britain still has a functioning democracy.? We have discovered from experience that dynamic alignment of EU laws is essential to operate globally.? Trump 2.0 has further reinforced the need for unity of purpose, trade co-operation, security and the rule of law.??

• The accession process varies in length, notably for states where there have been recent transitions to democracy and significant disparity with the EU in terms of economic development

The UK quickly found that divergence is bad for business and our fortunes.? We have therefore largely stuck to EU rules.? Dynamic alignment of laws is already happening in key sectors.? Although it will be essential for Britain and the EU to agree safeguards in any agreement, to avoid a flip-flop Brexit, Britain has not become a rogue state, despite the wishes of a few.

In terms of the timescale, what matters is the strategic intent to begin the process rather than the end point.? An intention to rejoin with the submission of the relevant paperwork would itself stem the flow of damage to Britain, as companies, sectors and segments would have certainty about locating their operations and their ability to continue trading with Europe.

• The Green Party supports rejoining the EU when politically feasible, while the Scottish National Party advocates for an independent Scotland joining the EU.

Applying to Rejoin is politically feasible now.? The Brexit culture carriers are substantially removed from power or thoroughly discredited.? Scotland (and Northern Ireland) did not vote for Brexit and both deserve to reassess their position.??

• If the UK reapplies, depending on factors like economic development and democratic transitions; for example, Finland completed the process in three years (1992–1995).

As stated above, the timescale for completion is less important than starting the process. Britain remains substantially aligned with EU laws, protocols and guidelines. This makes some of the complexity much more manageable.

• Does the UK need another referendum?

No.? Rejoining is a political decision. MPs govern based on facts, the world has shifted on its axis and the evidence is clear: Brexit has failed.? The public already supports rejoining by over 60%, heading towards 70%.? There is no need to relitigate the arguments. The nation would probably breathe a very large sigh of relief if we did not have to go through another lengthy and toxic referendum.? There are other ways to seek the public’s tacit assent to such a process.? Further information on this point is available in the book Rejoin EU: Reboot Britain.

• Some EU Member States might hesitate to accept a UK membership application due to concerns about political contention in the UK and the possibility of another withdrawal.

Public opinion has swung heavily against Brexit.? Whilst there is little appetite to re-open the debate on Brexit, it is also true that there is no appetite to repeat the Brexit experiment. Whilst families were divided by Brexit, these divisions will not just magically go away if the topic does not have closure in therapeutic terms. Rather, Brexit will infect a generation of family conversations as it continues to pop up in the news.? Betrayal is a very strong emotion in terms of the choices people make at the ballot box.??

It is up to member states to decide whether our application succeeds, not UK Parliament.? Any agreement needs to build in sufficient safeguards to assure the 27 that an application to rejoin would not be a ‘hokey cokey’ Brexit.? We would need to re-enter negotiations with a different mindset and the choice of negotiators will be pivotal to success.

• The Conservative and Reform parties oppose rejoining the EU, emphasizing post-Brexit freedoms and advocating for the removal of EU-derived legislation and renegotiation of treaties.

The Conservatives churned five leaders and lost the 2024 General Election with their mantra of ‘making Brexit work’.? They will not win another with the same story, especially when they tried to erase Brexit from public discourse in the 2024 GE.? Reform UK makes a lot of social media noise and currently has some popular protest support built on zero policies or experience in implementing complex social-economic and political change.? Whilst it is a mistake to ignore these so-called ‘voices of the people’, Labour and others would do well not to be led by Nigel Farage’s dog whistling.? Instead, Labour needs to address the disaffected minority through various reforms to our democracy, feelings of exclusion from politics and the gap between haves and have nots.

Donald Trump has changed the narrative, making it much more urgent that we display unity, not just in military and intelligence terms, but across the entire STEEPLE (social, technological, economic, environmental, political, legal and ethical) factors.

• New EU members are expected to adopt the euro once criteria are met, though some countries, like Denmark, have explicit opt-outs, and others have delayed adoption.

It is always a mistake to let a single issue dominate the negotiations over a complex life changing socio-economic and political issue.? Brexit was dominated by Nigel Farage’s loud hailer about fishing.? In the event, it turned out to be a red herring, as fishermen were adversely affected by the very thing they were persuaded to vote for. We must apply to rejoin with an open mind and face the various challenges as adults and not repeat the mistakes of Johnson, Farage and Truss.? We believe that the vast majority of UK politicians are up to this challenge.

• The UK and Ireland’s opt-out from Schengen provisions relates to their separate common travel area, which remains in place.

See my previous remark.? Exceptions must not be allowed to dominate the conversation about rejoining the EU.? Brexit focused too much on single issues. We must avoid that mistake.

I urge you to push for urgent action in Parliament please.? The only good Brexit is a dead Brexit and it will be easier to get there in one courageous move rather than a slow death by 1000 ameliorations.

Best regards