Are We Ever Likely To Climb Back Into Bed With Europe?
The Independent|June 03, 2022
Europhiles were given something to cheer about heading into the long jubilee holiday when senior Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood made a surprising call for Britain to rejoin the EU single market.
Adam Forrest
Are We Ever Likely To Climb Back Into Bed With Europe?

All but the most ardent of blue and gold flag-waving Remainers had given up hope on Britain ever making a significant return to the bloc's institutions.

The Tory party forced out all of its Brussels sympathisers during the parliamentary Brexit wars of 2016 to 2019. Labour, wounded by losing so many of those battles, has given up on even talking about it.

It makes Ellwood's intervention all the more strange. An outspoken critic of Boris Johnson believed to hold leadership ambitions, he appears unlikely to win many friends on the back benches with his bold new stance.

But his proposal to ape Norway-style arrangements inside the EU single market as a member of the European Economic Area (EEA) is, on paper, sensible. It was even a mainstream Tory view in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum.

This story is from the June 03, 2022 edition of The Independent.

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This story is from the June 03, 2022 edition of The Independent.

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