Unbound Briefing Room – W/C 5 October 2026

EU officials are heaping the pressure on the UK government to increase tariffs on cars imported from China in order to avoid "Made in Europe" barriers on British exports to the bloc (barriers which even the pro-EU Guardian describes as "protectionist").

So far, the Burnham administration has resisted these calls, which would reduce competition and choice and increase costs to UK consumers. Discriminatory tariffs would also be likely to prompt economic retaliation from China, impacting investment as well as trade. On the other hand, the EU as a whole is, for now, the UK's biggest export market in terms of size, if not growth.

But whatever the pros and cons of imposing additional tariffs on China, this is a decision that should be made independently by the UK government, without undue influence from the EU.

If Britain rejoined the EU, or simply formed a new customs union with the EU, this decision would be taken out of our hands. Indeed, almost all the UK's global trade policies would then be "Made in Brussels"...

One of the many 'Brexit benefits' at risk from the so-called UK-EU "reset" (let alone "rejoin") is the push for higher animal welfare standards. The focus of this piece from the campaign group 'Humane World for Animals UK' is on the fur trade, but other examples include the bans on live animal exports and on industrial fishing...

French presidential front-runner Marine Le Pen has made some new proposals which would rock the EU boat even further. One is to cut France’s net annual contribution to the EU’s long-term budget to just €5bn, which would dismay the poorer members who are net recipients as well as richer members who might have to make up any shortfall .

Another Le Pen proposal is to harmonise tobacco & alcohol taxes across the bloc and transfer most of the revenues to Brussels, which would dismay the richer members who would lose the most revenues. Either way, the UK is better off out!

In a new article in The Scotsman, Brian Monteith, Britain Unbound advisory council member and former member of the Scottish and European parliaments argues the prime minister should focus on his NHS reform and not be distracted by the divisive issues around EU membership or alignment. He writes, "If Burnham wants to deliver the change he desires for social care, he should relegate his EU ambitions to no more than improving relations, while recognising Starmer’s reset will cost too much for too little in return. By not breaking his promises, he will not be a new Keir Starmer – and that’s improvement enough."

Monteith also argued that the prime minister "cannot simply swan into the EU without a referendum. Winning a general election will not be good enough. The 2016 referendum had a turnout of 72.2 per cent involving 33.5 million voters compared to the 2024 general election achieving only a 59.7 per cent turnout of 28.8 million voters. The elections of 2017 and 2019 were also below the referendum totals."

64% of respondents to a new YouGov poll said that the UK government should not be able to take us back into the EU without another referendum. In a piece for Conservative Home, reproduced here, John Redwood explains why the people are indeed sovereign and any suggestion of rejoining the EU will need their say so.

Julian Jessop has also commented in a post on X (formerly Twitter). In his view, the legal nicety that referendums are "advisory" does not mean it is OK to disregard the results, especially if the government had repeatedly said that this is a "once in a generation decision" and that it would "implement what you decide"…