Matthew Green urges Government to join single market to help South Shropshire families, businesses and farms

Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate Matthew Green has called for a bold new deal with Europe, including joining the single market, to cut the cost of living for local people, businesses and farms in South Shropshire.

Matthew Green says too many businesses and families in Shropshire are being “punished” with sky-high bills, expensive food shops and squeezed budgets.

The Liberal Democrats are calling on the Government to negotiate a new Growth and Defence Partnership with the EU, as proposed by party leader Ed Davey, that would turbocharge local economic growth and bring real relief to hard-pressed residents.

The plans would see the UK join the EU single market and a customs union, tearing down trade barriers and boosting economic growth. It would reverse damage from the Conservatives' botched Brexit deal, which cost the country an estimated £90 billion in lost tax revenue in 2025 alone.

Matthew Green is also calling for deeper defence ties with European partners, to keep Britain safe and counter growing threats from Vladimir Putin.

Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for South Shropshire Matthew Green said:

“It’s time to talk about the elephant in the room. 10 years on, there is no denying that Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson’s Brexit experiment has been a failure. It did real damage to our local economy, particularly farming, and worsened the cost-of-living crisis - the effects of which are being felt by families, farms, traders and businesses across South Shropshire.

“Now the same politicians who got us into this mess are telling us that it doesn’t matter how bad it gets, local people just have to live with the terrible deal they left us. 

“The Conservative Brexit deal has meant money taken away from our local schools and hospitals, and out of our pockets in higher taxes in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.

“The Liberal Democrats say that enough is enough, we need to move on. That’s why we are calling on the Labour government to take the bold action that is needed to help people and businesses in South Shropshire now. 

“There must be no more dither and delay in growing our economy, tackling the cost of living and keeping our communities safe, and that starts with rebuilding our relationship with Europe."

BACKGROUND NOTES

A new Growth and Defence Partnership with the EU

The Liberal Democrats are calling for the UK government to begin talks immediately with the EU on a new Growth and Defence Partnership including:

• Joining the single market as a member of the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) and the European Economic Area (EEA), alongside Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein.
• Forming a new UK-EU customs union.
• A new defence pact, including a new European Rearmament Bank, UK access to the €150 billion SAFE programme, a new European Security Council, and joined-up procurement through the EU’s defence industrial toolkit.

This would fully remove trade barriers to Europe, reversing years of economic damage caused by the Brexit deal negotiated by the Conservative government.

Taken together, this new Growth and Defence Partnership will help to make the UK richer, safer and stronger – and is also an essential step on the road to EU membership, which remains our longer-term objective.

Existing analysis of the damage to the UK economy from Brexit

A recent study from the National Bureau of Economic Research, a leading US-based think tank, found that the economic damage caused by the previous Government’s Brexit deal since 2016 had kept the UK economy up to 8% smaller than it could have been.

Separate analysis of those figures by the House of Commons Library estimates that if GDP were 8% higher, tax revenues would have been around £90 billion higher in 2024/25, than they actually were.