Close this content

Ed Davey Says UK Needs Closer Ties With Europe to Lift Business

Saksha Menezes and Guy Johnson

15 June 2024 at 0:39 pm·2-min read

(Bloomberg) -- Britain’s Liberal Democrat Party leader set out a path to rejoin the European Union’s single market, saying businesses need closer ties with the trading bloc to prosper.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Ed Davey blamed the Conservative government for poor relations with the bloc after Britain voted to leave in 2016. He said it “might take a while” to regain trust and improve trading links.

Liberal Democrats are trying to fill a vacuum in the debate about Britain’s exit from the EU, which has resulted in a plunge in trade with the bloc and business investment in the UK. While polls show Brexit is increasingly unpopular with voters, neither the Conservatives or Labour opposition are talking much about the issue, and neither wants to rejoin the EU.

“We’re the only party talking positively about engaging with our European friends and neighbors,” Davey said Saturday in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “We’re talking about rebuilding that trust and relationships that have been so poisoned by the Conservatives.”

Once in a distant third place behind Labour and the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats now have been surpassed by the far-right Reform Party ahead of the general election on July 4. Even so, Davey’s party may pick up enough seats in Parliament to influence government policy if the election is close.

Rejoining the single market and the EU has been a long-time policy for Davey and his party.

“The sun is shining on the Liberal Democrats,” Davey joked as he held a yellow party umbrella when he was interviewed on a rainy Saturday. He said a “long-term stable policy” would encourage companies to invest.

Davey said he’d start with a “good trade deal” with the EU because business leaders in the UK have told him they’re holding back investment due to a lack of long-term strategy on Europe.

He noted that it was the Liberal Democrats in the coalition government from 2010 who pushed for “contracts for difference” that spurred investment in the electricity business and especially green energy. The right policies, he said, could bring in more money.

“The markets, the city, the country needs a party that is going to take this financial challenge seriously and we are,” he said. “Not only are we the most ambitious party in terms of investment and the economy but we’re also the most responsible.”

--With assistance from Andrew Atkinson.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.

The Telegraph
Russia is crumbling from within
On Sunday evening, the North Caucasus region of Dagestan was rocked by a series of brutal terrorist attacks. Gunmen opened fire in a synagogue in Derbent, graphically slit the throat of Russian Orthodox priest Father Nikolay, and attacked Jewish and Christian houses of worship in Dagestan’s largest city Makhachkala. These brutal crimes claimed the lives of at least 15 people, including police officers.
Business Insider
A Russian soldier's killing of a wounded comrade highlights the 'brutal culture' rampant inside Russia's military, war analysts say
Experts called out the callous behavior within the Russian armed forces after drone footage showed a soldier shooting a wounded comrade.
The Telegraph
Brace yourself for Keir Starmer’s puritan war on life’s pleasures
This is how the Conservative world ends, not with a bang but a flutter. The Tories in office were gamblers, shaggers, nutters and clowns, but at least they were funny – and their wrist too limp to grasp power entirely. Now the cavaliers are leaving the stage; here come the roundheads. Brace yourselves for a war on joy.
The Telegraph
Parish council quits over backlash after claims man’s voluntary clear-up was ‘criminal damage’
An entire parish council has resigned after a man was reported to the police for criminal damage for clearing a roadside pavement of weeds, stinging nettles and brambles.
HuffPost
Ex-Aide Predicts Future Of Donald And Melania Trump's Relationship
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff weighed in on the former first lady's absence from the campaign trail.
HuffPost
Eric Trump's 'Unvarnished' Claim About Dad Gets Brutal Instant Fact Check
Critics slammed the son of the former president for a wild new claim about his father.
The Independent
Shock new poll confirms Reform lead over Tories despite Farage’s Putin comments
Nigel Farage’s comments about Putin and Ukraine do not appear to have dented Reform’s popularity according to a major new poll of 10,000 voters
The Daily Beast
Judge Aileen Cannon Dresses Down Trump Prosecutor: ‘I Don’t Appreciate Your Tone’
There was tension in U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s courtroom on Monday afternoon as the controversial jurist—already facing criticism that she is in the tank for Donald Trump, who appointed her to the bench during his single term in the White House—snapped at one of the government attorneys prosecuting Trump for unlawfully hoarding classified documents after leaving office.The exchange occurred during a hearing at the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida, with prosecutors arguing for
The Guardian
HMRC is threatening my terminally ill father with debt collectors
He is 92 and doesn’t actually owe the money, but there is nothing he can do to stop the tax demands coming
The Telegraph
For intolerant Farage supporters, grown-up debate has clearly become a farce
Much heartened by the onslaught of criticism I’ve been receiving from Telegraph readers, I am returning to the subject of one of Clacton’s parliamentary candidates. Two weeks ago I got myself into a vat of boiling oil for saying we should turn our heads to the wall from Mr Farage’s sort of bitter and divisive populism. My column was greeted with such outrage and affront that I knew I was onto something.
Associated Press
Russia summons the American ambassador over a deadly attack that Moscow says used US-made missiles
The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the American ambassador on Monday to protest what it says was the use of U.S.-made advanced missiles in a Ukrainian attack on Russian-annexed Crimea that reportedly killed four people and wounded more than 150. Washington “has effectively become a party” to the war on Ukraine’s side, the ministry said in a statement, adding, “Retaliatory measures will certainly follow.” The Associated Press could not independently verify Russia's claims about the missiles used.
The Telegraph
No Brexit renegotiation without free movement, warns Barnier
The European Union will reject a future Labour government’s Brexit plan unless it agrees to a return to free movement, the bloc’s former negotiator has warned.
The Telegraph
Why it’s too late to stop World War 3
Imagine, for a moment, that the Iranian government announces it has developed a nuclear bomb and threatens to use it on Israel. The United States reacts with the threat of military intervention, as it did in 1991 and 2003 in Iraq. Iran signals that it will not tolerate a third Gulf war and looks for allies. American forces mass to enter Iran, which orders national mobilisation. Russia, China and North Korea express their support for Iran, and Washington expands its intervention force, bringing i
HuffPost UK
Tories Heading For Electoral Wipeout As New Poll Predicts 250-Seat Labour Majority
And the final result could be even worse for the Conservatives.
The Telegraph
EU uses legal loophole to overturn Hungary’s veto on arms for Ukraine
The European Union will use a “legal procedure” to get around Hungary’s veto of a plan to buy weapons for Ukraine using seized Russian cash, the bloc’s top foreign diplomat said on Monday.
HuffPost
CNN’s Kasie Hunt Dumps Trump Spokesperson For Talking Smack About Her Colleagues
“You come on my show, you respect my colleagues. Period,” Hunt later wrote on social media about literally silencing Karoline Leavitt on “This Morning.”
The Telegraph
It’s time to undo the damage Macron did to post-Brexit Britain
The red carpet was rolled out for financiers with lavish dinners laid on at Versailles. Paris claimed to have the world’s biggest hub for “le start-ups”. And the French stock market overtook London to become the largest in Europe.
The Guardian
The Kremlin’s Noose by Amy Knight review – vital primer on Putin’s Russia and Boris Berezovsky’s death
The American historian and expert on Russia has written a definitive study of the flamboyant life and mysterious death of the oligarch, a confidant of Yeltsin and a man to whom Putin was once indebted
The Telegraph
Crimean sunbathers struck by deadly shrapnel shower from Ukrainian missile
Shrapnel from an intercepted US-made missile fired by Ukraine hit a beach packed with sunbathing tourists in occupied Crimea on Sunday.
Sky News
Former Tory defence secretary joins Johnny Mercer's attack on Labour candidate's military service claims
Conservative former defence secretary Ben Wallace has joined veterans minister Johnny Mercer's attacks on his Labour electoral rival. Mr Mercer, who is standing as the Tory candidate for the Plymouth Moor View constituency, had claimed his Labour opponent Fred Thomas was "bloating" his military service.