Firstly, I want to thank you and the hundreds of thousands of supporters who have taken campaign actions, or made donations, since Best for Britain was founded in 2017. All of us here at B4B recognise that none of this would be possible without you. Every time you have sent a letter or copy of our publications to your MP, or shared our work on social media, you have been taking us closer to this point.

When Best for Britain first brought experts together to draft proposals for a UK-EU Youth Mobility Scheme in 2022, Boris Johnson was still Prime Minister, and we were dealing with the daily embarrassment of a government ripping up our reputation and relationship with our European neighbours. When we first published 114 recommendations to undo the mess of Brexit in May 2023, Rishi Sunak was busy stirring up culture wars with his “Stop the Boats” rhetoric, rather than heeding the increasingly obvious warning signs that the UK economy was being deeply damaged by the barriers between the UK and the EU. Before I come on to today’s news, it’s worth pointing out that 42 of Best for Britain’s 114 recommendations have now been adopted by the current government, thanks -  in no small part - to you. 

Putting the Conservatives to one side, the work to persuade the Labour party to accept that the UK’s position -  cut off from Europe - was not sustainable has been similarly challenging. When supporters have told me of their dismay (perhaps anger would be more accurate) at Keir Starmer and others, I’ve often been unable to disagree. I feel their frustration and despair, often borne out of deep worry for their lives or livelihoods, or those of others. And you may have been, or still be, in this position too. Being forced to talk about solutions to Brexit within the confines of Labour’s manifesto “red lines”  has not been easy. So thank you to those of you who have held your nose time and time again. It is perhaps even more frustrating that it has taken a second Trump term and a world descending further into war for more people in Labour to talk openly of the value of the European project. But then that’s why Europe - a continent not just of allies, but neighbours, and friends - came together, after the Second World War, in the first place. It was easier, ten years ago in an era of relative peace, for Eurosceptics to belittle the importance of pan-European institutions. Let’s not waste the opportunity to make more people realise why it’s so important, even if it feels a little late, and in the gravest of circumstances. 

What has Best for Britain been doing?

Our fantastic policy and external affairs team, led by Tom Brufatto, has been meeting with absolutely everyone in Westminster for the last two years, across the political spectrum, but particularly across Government and Whitehall, to make our 114 recommendations a reality, and remind them that going even further in our relationship with Europe has the best impact on shielding the UK from an unreliable United States. In Brussels, the Best for Britain team, led by our brilliant chief executive Naomi Smith, has been building support and laying the groundwork for a softening in the UK or EU’s negotiating positions; rolling the pitch for a closer relationship, even when that’s been tricky for some EU member states to begin contemplating again. This behind-the-scenes work is most effective when combined with a powerful media operation, headed up by Jessica Frank-Keyes, that keeps the key issues in the papers, and on the airwaves, on a daily basis. On social media, thanks to the excellent efforts of Laurena Rodrigues and Joshua Edwicker, we reach more people who then write to their MP or their local newspaper - and, we hope, feel heartened knowing others out there share your - our - worldview. Best for Britain is a powerful team of voters and activists like you, driving home a message, put together by policy experts like James Coldwell and Ayesha Chaudhry, that’s backed up by meetings and events in Parliament. It’s not always very visible, and it’s often not very sexy or exciting. Getting people to care or understand the strengths and limitations of the Sanitary and Phytosanitary deal can be tough work. But it is effective. Sometimes slow. But effective. The Guardian’s Zoe Williams summed this up nicely, arguing that we might never have got to this point if Best for Britain hadn’t “insisted on talking about this for years”. But in truth, it’s not just us, it’s you.

So what happens now?

Well, we aren’t going to rejoin the single market or the customs union, or the EU itself, any time soon. After all, there is still so much to sort out ahead of the next UK-EU Summit this summer. But, this is the first time that Keir Starmer, and Cabinet Ministers like Nick Thomas-Symonds, have been this positive or open about their ambition to get even closer. Rachel Reeves kicked a lot of this off in her speech at the LSE earlier this year, and now her colleagues have gone even further. I’m not asking you to be grateful for any of this - there have been far too many times when we’ve been disappointed with the current administration on this and other issues. But I am asking you to seize the opportunity. We must now push the Government to go even further than Best for Britain’s 114 recommendations. 

In the coming weeks and months, Best for Britain will be contacting you, at the key moments, to take action - often writing to specific targets; cabinet ministers, your local MP, or the nearest newspaper, to back a more radical reimagining of our relationship with Europe. Make sure you’re subscribed to our emails or Substack, to find out the moment you’re needed. 

In the meantime, our policy and external affairs team is busy briefing parliamentarians on our latest research, and we’ll be doing even more to quantify the gains that can be had from a much closer relationship with the EU.

But we must be prepared to be attacked. Already today, Nigel Farage has promised to roll back any progress on fixing our relationship with Europe. We have plans, alongside other campaigning organisations, to deal with him and his party, which I know many of you are already involved in. In the past we’ve proved that his own voters aren’t even against a closer relationship, and in the coming weeks we’ll be doing that again. But on the key issues now set to be negotiated.

We cannot - and will not - allow him and his cronies to crush Britain’s chances of success once again.

I know that you feel the same.

So I leave you by reiterating our thanks for all your hard work and commitment. And if you agree that any of this progress sounds important and worthwhile, please do consider making a donation to help it continue!

Yours in hope,

Cal