The United Kingdom should rejoin the European Union.

Brexit created an impossible NI border dilemma.

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(England, Wales and Scotland), which means full and unfettered trade access. But the Good Friday Accords, which sealed peace with Irish nationalist paramilitaries, required the absence of a land border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. That means no customs or other border checks on people and goods crossing from one to the other.

Brexit caused labor shortages across critical UK sectors, raising costs and limiting output.

Low 20 [Hailey Low, 1-31-2020, "Five Years On: The Economic Impact of Brexit," NIESR,

Before Brexit, businesses could readily meet their labour needs through the EU’s integrated labour market. Since the end of the free movement of labour, critical sectors like agriculture, healthcare and hospitality have all encountered labour shortages, resulting in higher operating costs while limiting output. In contrast, EU economies were able to leverage their integrated labour markets to respond more flexibly to post-pandemic workforce challenges. Brexit has also transformed the UK’s trade relationship with its largest trading partner, the EU. Customs checks, rules of origin requirements, and regulatory differences have raised costs and administrative burdens for UK exporters, reducing trade volumes. Sectors dependent on EU markets, such as manufacturing, food exports, and labour-intensive sectors, have been hit harder. Meanwhile, EU countries have maintained smooth trade operations, giving them a competitive advantage.

Brexit means UK-EU security cooperation is ad-hoc, not full potential.

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UK closer together by galvanizing them into punishing Russia’s aggression, supporting Ukraine’s resistance, and defending the European security order. Since February 2022, Brussels and London have cooperated successfully, although primarily on an ad hoc basis. For the EU, the war was a reminder that even outside the union, Britain remains a major security player: It is one of the largest bilateral donors to Ukraine, having pledged £7.8 billion ($9.8 billion) of military assistance so far. Since Trump’s victory, Starmer has repeatedly called on allies to ramp up support for Ukraine, and in December, he stressed the need to place the country “in the strongest possible position for negotiations.” In the realm of defense, London and Brussels have worked together on training Ukraine’s armed forces, despite having separate training missions in the country. Britain also sent personnel to a Brussels-based clearinghouse for military equipment destined for Ukraine.

Rejoining means resuming significant EU budget contributions.

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The UK's gross public sector contribution to the EU Budget in 2019-20, the final financial year before Brexit, was £18.3bn, equivalent to around £352m per week, according to the Treasury. The UK continued paying into the EU Budget during the transition period but since 31 December 2020 it has not made these contributions. However, those EU Budgets contributions were always partially recycled to the UK via payments to British farmers under the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and "structural funding" - development grants to support skills, employment and training in certain economically disadvantaged regions of the nation. These added up to £5bn in 2019-20. Since the end of the transition period UK governments have replaced the CAP payments directly with taxpayer funds.

Takeout - UK gains influence independently via 39 trade deals with 73 partners.

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UK Government, 3-24-2025, DOA 08-20-25, [Official website of the United Kingdom Government.] “The UK’s trade agreements”, GOV.UK, https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/the-uks-trade-agreements //ZA2 Trade agreements set out the rules for buying and selling goods and services between 2 or more countries. They reduce restrictions on imports and exports, which can make trading easier and cheaper when they are used. Trade agreements in force As an independent trading nation, the UK now has 39 trade agreements in place with 73 partners. These agreements are in force for 72 partners. The UK signed an agreement with Comoros (12 April 2022) under the economic partnership agreement with Eastern and Southern African countries (ESA), and will be covered by this agreement when they bring it into effect domestically.

Takeout - UK economic problems predate Brexit; blaming it is too simplistic.

McTague 22 [Tom McTague, POLITICO’s chief U.K. political correspondent, 10-18-2022, Don’t Blame

Brexit, Atlantic, https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2022/10/liz-truss-uk-britain-economy-brexit/671778 /, Willie T.] Even if Britain has been languishing in the economic doldrums since the global financial crisis, laying the blame there seems too reductive. The harder truth is that Britain has been failing for longer still. Since the turn of the century, in fact, Britain has been lamentably mismanaged. The serial failures encompass its military missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, its regulatory regime in the great financial crisis, its political elite during Brexit, and its institutional machinery during the pandemic. Westminster devolved power to Scotland in the hope of neutering secessionism, only to see the reverse happen. It gave voters a referendum on leaving the EU without any idea of how it would do so if they voted yes. And when it found itself outmaneuvered during the Brexit negotiations, it signed up for the economic division of its own country, knowing that this would imperil the fragile political settlement in Northern Ireland. In short, Britain has done a lot of stupid shit. Of course, other countries have also struggled during the pandemic, but the U.K.’s vaccine-research program will have saved millions of lives worldwide. Unlike some backsliding democracies, Britain does not have leaders who seek to overturn the results of elections. Despite the recent turbulence and humiliation, the country remains as wealthy as France. But the bigger picture is unflattering: Unlike in France, secessionist nationalisms are only one referendum from success, and the governing elite no longer seem to have a coherent strategy for what to do next. When faced with such challenges, the impulse to reach for simple, populist explanations—it’s all Brexit’s fault!—is understandable. To believe that the country’s problems can be explained by a single act of stupidity, rather than by structural issues much harder to rectify, is, after all, comforting. A quick look at Britain’s economic growth since 1945 shows that claims of decline and resurrection, before and after Europe, before and after Thatcher, are not all they seem. In figures provided to me by the Centre for European Reform, a London-based think tank, Britain’s average GDP growth rate (in real terms) from 1945 to 1973—outside what was then called the European Common Market—was 2.8 percent. From 1974 to 2008—with Britain a full member of the European Economic Community, as it became before its final form as the EU—this fell to 2.3 percent. From 2009 to 2019, between the financial crisis and Brexit, this dropped further to 1.3 percent. Britain’s growth rate, in other words, has shown a long-term slowdown irrespective of membership in Europe, much like that of the rest of the West. When compared with the growth rate of other countries, however, Britain’s performance looks better in Europe than out. Outside, its economy grew about half as quickly as France’s and Germany’s did. Inside, up until 2016, it grew at roughly the same rate; after Brexit, it slowed slightly. Which figures are more significant? That depends on what story you’re trying to tell about in or out.