The UK Would be Better Off Economically Outside the European Union
PRO (4 arguments)
BACKGROUND: Brexit is an abbreviation for "British exit," which refers to the June 23, 2016, referendum whereby British citizens voted to exit the European Union. The referendum roiled global markets, including currencies, causing the British pound to fall to its lowest level in decades.
Non-EU countries, such as Norway, Iceland, and Switzerland have all had their own trade agreements and markets that are flourishing outside of the EU. The vast majority of small and medium sized firms do not trade with the EU but are restricted by a huge regulatory burden imposed from abroad. By getting rid of EU regulatory restrictions, the UK can have freer trade. Overall, the UK would be able to renegotiate better trading terms with the EU and non-EU countries if they were to leave the European Union. London would save billions of pounds in annual EU contributions. Patrick Minford, Professor of Applied Economics at Cardiff Business School, states, “In the long term, Brexit will herald a major growth-boosting period, as the UK breaks free of the over-mighty EU with its protectionist mindset and establishes free trade and intelligent regulation aimed at UK economic interests.” In addition, the think-tank Open Europe found that the UK’s GDP could rise by 1.6 percent if the UK had the ability to negotiate a free trade deal with Europe. This freedom to negotiate is only possible if the UK leaves the EU. Last year, the UK paid 13 billion pounds to the EU and received 4.5 billion pounds in spending, so its net contribution to the EU was 8.5 billion pounds.
Without a doubt, the UK not having to pay 8.5 billion pounds to the EU would boost its own economy. This additional money could be used towards social services, like the National Health Service.
Cardiff Business School
The vote for the UK to leave the EU occurred back in June, and this referendum caused a drop in the British pound from being worth $1.48 to $1.32. Some opponents of Brexit believed that this drop in value would be very harmful to the economy, but the positive trend of the UK’s economy over the summer suggests that huge economic benefits will come from formal withdrawal. According to the New York Post, the drop in currency value led to a record number of visitors to the UK this past summer along with tourists spending record amounts of money, leading to an overall boost in the economy. In the month before Brexit, airline reservations to Britain were down compared to the previous year. However, after the Brexit vote, they jumped 4.3 percent, and wealthier tourists bought more jewelry and watches. In addition, consumer confidence and domestic spending are both up, as demonstrated by retail sales exceeding all expectations in August. Not only are these industries flourishing as a result of the vote, but manufacturing and home sales are also doing well. According to the UK’s Daily Express Newspaper, the Financial Times Stock Exchange 100, a share index of the top 100 UK companies, reached 6,990 after the Brexit vote, which was the highest point reached by the share index since June 2015 and marked an increase of more than 1% on the day’s trading. According to the UK purchasing managers’ index, output in the manufacturing sector reached the highest level in two years, hitting 55.4 last month. This was a full 2 points higher than the score in August, and it exceeded economist expectations of 52.1. Rob Dobson, senior economist at IHS Markit, said: "The rebound over the past two months has been encouragingly strong, and puts the sector on course to provide a further positive contribution to GDP in the third quarter." Output rose at its quickest in one-and-a-half years in the consumer goods sector, while manufacturing production saw its fastest expansion since May 2014.
We have clearly already seen the huge economic impacts of Brexit. Undoubtedly, this evidence is the most important evidence in the debate because we are talking about the real impacts of Brexit that have already been documented.
New York Post
Under EU law, Britain cannot prevent anyone from another member state coming to live in the country. The result has been a huge increase in immigration into Britain, particularly from eastern and southern Europe. According to the Office for National Statistics, there are 942,000 eastern Europeans, Romanians and Bulgarians working in the UK, along with 791,000 western Europeans – and 2.93 million workers from outside the EU. China and India are the biggest source of foreign workers in the UK. This recent pace of immigration has led to some difficulties with providing housing and health services, which are paid for by taxing British citizens. These British taxpayers resent paying for social services for newly-arrived immigrants, who often come with no English language skills so they can’t get jobs. They must survive on government hand-outs. Pro-Brexit politicians like Nigel Farage insisted immigration should be cut dramatically, and that leaving the EU was the only way to "regain control of our borders".
It is clear that immigrants from other EU member states have recently flooded to the UK, forcing British people out of their jobs. The only way to reemploy these British people is by finding jobs for them, which is achieved by blocking out other immigrants. Decreasing the UK’s unemployment rate would definitely be a positive impact on the economy.
Office for National Statistics
The UK’s total contribution is more than €20 billion - the UK currently loses control to the EU about the way the full amount is spent. The UK will be able to decide how the full amount is spent. Even accounting for the money that the EU spends in the UK, the UK is worse off by €10 billion each year as part of the EU.
One of the UK’s most reputed and widely read newspapers, The Telegraph, analyzed the UK’s contribution to the EU and the EU’s spending in the UK. It found that in 2013 the UK contributed the second most amount of money to the EU, seconded only by Germany. Every year, the UK gives €10 billion more to the EU than it gets back.