Britain Should Seek to Rejoin EU, Says Civil Servant Who Led Brexit Department

THE GUARDIAN: Philip Rycroft says promises on issues from economics to immigration have not lived up to expectations

Screenshot taken from this Guardian article. | Anti-Brexit protesters outside the Houses of Parliament in April. Photograph: James Veysey/Shutterstock
Britain should start talking about rejoining the EU, according to a former senior civil servant who ran the Brexit department.

Philip Rycroft, who was permanent secretary of the Department for Exiting the EU, said the “argument was there to be won” about going back into Europe, adding that a “clear-headed appraisal of what is in the country’s best interests” was needed. However, he said rejoining the bloc could be a “long and windy” road.

“Most economic analysis suggests that we have taken a significant hit to GDP as a result of leaving the single market,” he wrote in the Times. “The precise number, and the impact on our export performance to the EU and beyond, might be subject to debate, but no one can credibly claim that we have marched to the sunny uplands of sustained economic growth as a consequence of Brexit.”

Rycroft said the promises of the Brexit campaign on issues from economics to immigration had not lived up to expectations. “The great promise of a comprehensive trade deal with the USA now seems like an impossible dream,” he said.

“Chill winds don’t just blow through the international trading order. The postwar certainties that underpinned our security as a nation are visibly crumbling. With a hot war on the European mainland perpetrated by a revanchist Russia and an increasingly disengaged America, it is beyond peradventure that we must look to solidarity with our friends and neighbours in Europe to secure our defences.”

He concluded: “The argument is there to be won. It is time to talk about rejoining. It might be time to knock on the EU’s door.” » | Rowena Mason and Lisa O’Carroll | Friday, April 24, 2026

It is to be hoped that this gentleman will apologize to the British electorate for leading them down the primrose path! — © Mark Alexander

More Than Half of Britons Support Rejoining EU 10 Years On from Brexit Vote

THE GUARDIAN: Experts say Labour’s ‘halfway house’ approach risks losing support from progressives and ‘red wall’ voters

Support for rejoining the EU rather than simply rejoining the single market is growing among British voters, with more than 80% of Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green party supporters favouring this option, according to research mapping voter attitudes 10 years after the Brexit referendum.

Labour’s “muted” approach to the issue means it risks losing support among progressive voters and in “red wall” constituencies, experts have said as part of research by Best for Britain.

While 61% of all voters supported the government’s current approach to EU relations, only 19% did so “strongly”, the research showed.

A full return to the EU was supported by 53% of all voters with support at 83% among Labour voters, 84% Liberal Democrat and 82% Green, the polling found.

Of Conservative and Reform voters, 39% and 18% backed the policy respectively, Best for Britain found. » | Lisa O’Carroll | Friday, April 17, 2026

”The UK Is Living a Lie over Brexit”

Nick Clegg speaks the truth about that ghastly man, Nigel Farage.

Rob Groves: BREXIT - 63% Now Want Back In. Thanks, Trump!

Apr 11, 2026 | Ten years ago, 52% of voters chose to leave the European Union, on the basis of lies painted on a bus and a campaign bankrolled by dodgy money. A decade on, the bill keeps arriving. Haulage companies going bust at twice the pre-Brexit rate, food prices rising, trade barriers grinding away at the economy, and a so-called special relationship with America that turned out to be a vassal state telling itself a flattering story.

Meanwhile, the latest YouGov polling shows 63% of Britons would now vote to rejoin the EU. Among 18-25 year olds, that figure is 86%. Even among retirees, 60% say they'd vote to rejoin. The tide has turned. The argument has been won. The question now is: what happens next?

Michael Lambert: Top Ten Brexit Lies and Starmer's Stupid Red Lines

Mar 21, 2026 | Is the "Brexit Omertà" finally over?

In this video, I break down why senior Labour politicians are suddenly finding their voices to criticize the economic damage of leaving the EU.

We look at the latest YouGov data showing a massive 82% of Labour voters now support rejoining the EU—leaving Keir Starmer in a nearly impossible political position. Why did he set "Red Lines" back in 2022 that ruled out the Single Market and Customs Union, and can he ever walk them back?

Trump and the Death of the Atlantic Partnership

Mar 14, 2026 | From detained tourists and phone-searching ICE agents to Steve Bannon dismissing Britain as "pre-Islamic", the Special Relationship is exposed as the diplomatic fiction it always was. With the FIFA World Cup heading to Trump's America, British fans need to think hard. And so does Keir Starmer. It's time for the UK to stop turning up on Washington's doorstep with flowers, and start building something real with the neighbours who actually share our values. Europe is right there. It always has been.

I am in total agreement with the sentiments expressed in this video. My regular visitors will know that I have been saying similar things in my comments for a very long time. These things need to be said over and over. The concept of the so-called, one-way, and often very elusive “Special Relationship” is almost indelible in the psyche of the average Brit, because it has been repeated so many times. But the fact remains that any relationship with the USA is always lobsided and always on the side of being pleasing to America. It is not, and never could be, a relationship between two equals. Further, the undeniable fact of the matter is that Brits are Europeans, whether we are in the European Union or not, so our sensibilities and perceptions are fashioned by European mores and thought.

It is high time that we stopped harping on about this elusive special relationship, turned our backs on it, and rejoined our family and friends in Europe.

Naturally, we need to maintain good relations with America, but our future lies in and with Europe. The sooner we accept this incontrovertible fact, the better. — © Mark Alexander

Michael Lambert: UK Decline: Why We Are Finished without This One Change

Feb 28, 2026 | Is the UK's decline now irreversible? After spending time in Bangkok, the contrast in quality of life, infrastructure, and national energy has made me realize just how far we’ve fallen in the ten years since Brexit.

In this video, I explain why "educating the masses" won't work and propose a radical new "Truth & Honesty" law. We need to make lying expensive for newspapers, politicians, and social media giants. Without a systemic shift to honesty and the end of private political donations, I see no future for the UK.

Jeffrey Epstein UK: Brexit Links

Feb 11, 2026 | Nigel Boris Rees-Mogg meeting the guys are trying to move on May today.”

What Was Epstein Doing in Brexit?
Jeffrey Epstein UK: Brexit Links

Why was a convicted sex offender being updated on British political manoeuvring?

This video examines the released Epstein files, Bannon’s Brexit-era messages, Nigel Farage’s political network, Reform UK treasurer Nick Candy’s appearance in the same archive, and the conviction of Nathan Gill under national security laws.

Rob Groves: Epstein, Brexit and the Oligarch Network

Feb 7, 2026 | Brexit was sold as a patriotic uprising against “global elites”. But ten years on, the evidence tells a very different story. New reporting from the Epstein files shows how Brexit was welcomed inside elite billionaire networks as a “return to tribalism”. And when you trace the money, the data operations, the propaganda pipelines and the political networks behind Brexit, a clear pattern emerges. Brexit strengthened oligarchs, authoritarians and data-driven political operators.

Michael Lambert: Why No Leader Can Fix Britain’s Current Course

Feb 7, 2026 | In this video I reflect on recent events in British politics from a very different perspective — speaking from Bangkok and watching the UK from afar.

I discuss the latest defections to Reform UK, why Nigel Farage still represents a political cul-de-sac rather than a governing future, and what these shifts say about the Conservative Party’s decline.

I also look at Keir Starmer’s trip to China, the reality behind the so-called “sophisticated relationship”, and the uncomfortable truth about Britain trying to negotiate alone in a world dominated by large trade blocs.

Along the way I touch on Peter Mandelson, Labour’s leadership dilemma, Andy Burnham, Davos and the wider question of whether Brexit has left Britain trying to play a role in the world that no longer exists.

Farage´s “Behaviour of Putin’s Puppet” | Outside Views on Brexit and the UK

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Michael Lambert: Who Ruined Britain? - The 20 People I Hold Most Responsible

Jan 17, 2026 | Britain is in a terrible state — economically, politically, and socially. This did not happen by accident.

In this video, I list and comment on the 20 people (and groups) who I believe have been most responsible for Britain’s decline over the past decade.

These are my opinions, based on years of observing British politics, media, business and government — and I fully expect many viewers to disagree with parts of this list.

Brexit Is a Failure

Michael Heseltine speaks common sense with conviction.
The creation of the Single Market was indeed Margaret Thatchers’s GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT. That know-nothing, self-aggrandizing , self-enriching charlatan, Farage, should be thoroughly ashamed of himself for dragging us out of the European Union and impoverishing the nation. — © Mark Alexander

Brexit Shock: 62% Now Want to Re-join EU

Jan 4, 2026 | A groundbreaking new YouGov poll reveals that 62% of British voters now want to re-join the European Union, marking a historic supermajority that completely destroys Keir Starmer's Brexit red lines. This is higher than pro-EU support in France and Italy, proving that Brexit Britain has turned decisively against leaving the EU.

I, for one, would welcome getting rid of the pound! Long-term, the value of the pound has gone down and down. In fact, since the end of World War One, the pound has approximately halved in value every ten years! Yes, its value goes up for a while now and then, but the long-term trend is DOWN! Not wanting to relinquish the pound sterling is no argument for not re-joining the European Union. — © Mark Alexander

More Brexit Cheating

Listen to the argument here.

Brexit Supporting Journalists Admit It's Been a 'Failure' | LBC

Dec 3, 2025 | James O'Brien turns your attention back to the European Union as he considers whether the 'winds of change are blowing in the face of Brexit'.

Tory peer Lord Finkelstein writes in The Times, 'Logical step for Labour is to reverse Brexit'. This comes as Leave supporting columnists admit that Brexit has been a 'failure' as a respected economic body say it has reduced the UK's GDP per person by 6%-8%.

James takes aim at the Brexit-supporting media and argues that 'Project Fear' was not extreme enough.


This is where schadenfreude should kick in! But feeling that would be more than a little mean. So I shall refrain from revelling in it. I am, however, very pleased that I am, and always have been, on the right side of history when it comes to Brexit. I was dead nuts AGAINST Brexit from the very start. I said then that Brexit was MADNESS, and MADNESS it has proved to be.

The only relevant question now is this: How the hell are we going to be able to extricate ourselves from this ridiculous, stupid, and suicidal move. — © Mark Alexander

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HERE'S A LINK TO THE ARTICLE: Time to admit the truth: Brexit has been an unmitigated economic failure: Leaving the EU has reduced Britain’s GDP by up to 8pc, according to a devastating US study »

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