Britain Unbound is not opposed to working closely with our friends, neighbours and allies. Furthermore, it is in the UKs best interests to have strong mutually beneficial relationships with other nations, especially those within close proximity geographically. However we believe that this close relationship should never require subjugation to external decisions and laws, made by those with zero democratic involvement from the British people.
It is a demonstrable truth that the best outcome for the EU in any negotiation with the UK, is to get everything that it asks for with nothing for the UK in return. The argument could well be made that any friend that seeks to take advantage of the UK in this manner is not really a friend at all, but the EU cannot be blamed for taking advantage of a situation where the UK government seem to wish to give away concessions in negotiations, merely for the opportunity to give away more at a later date.
The UK has a significant trade deficit with the EU, which means that the UK buys more from EU member states than the EU buys from the UK in return. This should not be surprising in some respects, especially in relation to goods, as the UK is an island nation with limited resources and output capability compared to the larger EU. However that does mean that from a negotiating position the UK has a stronger hand - as the EU has more to lose in terms of trade output were the UK to purchase more goods from other nations around the world.
With this context, Britain Unbound will constantly hold the Government to account in supporting and providing scrutiny, criticism and comment on negotiations, including within Parliament where the current use of Statutory Instruments will ultimately be supplemented by an EU Reset Bill.
It is the belief of Britain Unbound, that the EU considers a competitive and successful UK to be an existential threat to the continued existence of the EU, and so ultimately aims to stifle UK competition through locking the UK back into Single Market laws and rules - making the UK a rule taker of the EU regulatory regime.
Fishing in UK Waters
The UK immediately conceded an additional 12 years of high fishing quotas for the EU, worth at least £6bn. This unfortunately means a further 12 years where the UK does not rebuild its fishing fleet, and does not have increased catch landings to build a larger fish processing and food manufacturing industry. This concession was given and immediately signed as an amendment to the existing UK-EU trade agreement, with no benefit to the UK received outside of the promise to enter negotiations for further concessions to EU demands.
Youth Opportunities
At the insistence of the EU, and contrary to the initial strong positions taken by the UK Government, the negotiations reportedly now include free movement of the under-35s, allowing free entry of many young people into the UK to access the more competitive jobs market. The large imbalance in population size between the UK and EU leaves the UK vulnerable to unreasonable pressures on housing, jobs and other facilities.
Erasmus+ Student Exchange
The UK government has agreed to pay in the region of £800 Million a year to rejoin the Erasmus+ student exchange scheme, with a 30% discount in the first year of 2027. This is a significant increase in costs over our previous membership fee in the EU - and from historical evidence from our previous membership, the scheme benefitted many more EU students than it did UK students. The post-Brexit Turing scheme, set up to replace the Erasmus+ membership, helped more UK students and cost much less, as was no longer burdened with underwriting the cost of European students at UK universities. Erasmus+ is an EU only scheme, and entails UK taxpayers paying for EU students
Defence Procurement
The Labour government engaged with the EU post-election on becoming a non-EU participant in the Security Action For Europe (SAFE) EU financial instrument, whose purpose is to provide EU member states with access to up to €150 Billion in centrally secured low interest loans to rapidly scale up investment in defence procurement by doing so jointly on common technologies and platforms - in other words EU member states buying the same tanks and missiles collectively and in bulk to secure them cheaper, using loans secured by the EU itself using the richer net contributing member states as guarantors of the loans to secure lower interest rates.
Non-EU countries were invited to participate in this scheme, but not to benefit from the centrally secured loans - their invitation was based on being able to participate in the joint procurement (benefitting from the discounts from the bulk orders), and also being able to bid to supply parts of those joint procurement orders. However the scheme had very strict rules on procurement, as the only items eligible to be purchased in the scheme were those with over 65% of the components coming from EU suppliers. These strict Rules of Origin (RoO) were intended to not only force EU member states to jointly invest in EU defence companies (even if they are not the best suppliers on the market), but also to force the EU away from its over-reliance on the US defence industry.
The negotiations between the UK and EU on SAFE participation collapsed in 2025, reportedly due predominantly to an overly high demand for the UK to pay for the pleasure to participate, with a price tag in the multiple Billions of pounds. This price tag, coupled with the requirement for the UK to then only invest in EU defence technology instead of its own UK technology and industry, was seemingly too high a price to pay. However the conversation has not gone away, and SAFE participation is reportedly still in the mix in the negotiations, despite the significant negative ramifications were the UK to take part.
However the part of SAFE participation that was not actively discussed at the time - and should have been - was how participation would have effectively put the EU in charge of UK defence procurement decisions and wider UK defence infrastructure, for decades to come. By controlling what could be purchased, and by insisting on those systems being designed, built and controlled by the EU, the UK would be unable to extricate itself from overall EU control for multiple decades while those platforms and systems were in operation.
The EU-UK Security and Defence partnership
This is so far outside the Treaties and offers flexible discussions between the UK and EU. It is more words than deeds. The UK already has formal partnership and joint mission arrangements through NATO with the leading European countries. The main aim should be to avoid anything that conflicts with NATO and to avoid anything that puts our defence under EU law.
Emissions Trading Scheme
The UK has its own damaging Emissions Trading scheme to make energy dear and to tax high energy using industries in the name of net zero. The EU scheme is similar but has a higher carbon price or tax. Joining the EU scheme will push up energy prices, accelerate de industrialisation, and lock us in, making a change of policy more difficult.
SPS
The government has published a draft text of an SPS Agreement to ease sanitary checks on food products. This locks the UK into a wide range of EU Single market laws, making us a rule taker. The restrictive and costly EU laws will apply to all companies in the affected sectors including small businesses only working for the UK market and including exports to non EU destinations. There will be an EU charge for the service. It is difficult to see what benefits there will be for those who do export to the EU. There are dangers to UK innovation in farming and food production, to meeting specifications for non EU markets and to our balance of trade. The UK is a very small exporter of farm products to the continent but a large importer. The aim of the EU will be to boost its exports by more.
E-gates
Promises of easier entry to EU destinations for UK tourists have floundered on delays to the new technology and the EU decision that each member state needs to negotiate an e gates solution with the UK rather than the EU as a whole
