Interview on 'Do Britain’s European ties damage its prosperity?'

Eurosceptics claim that EU membership has become a major drag on the British economy. If Britain left the EU, they argue, it would be freed of irksome continental influences like regulations and protectionism – and would consequently become freer, more prosperous and truer to its globalising nature.

Philip Whyte argues that despite the supposedly burdensome regulatory constraints of EU membership, the UK’s product and labour markets are among the freest in the developed world, and that leaving the EU would reduce the regulatory burden by less than is sometimes supposed. In addition, he argues that exiting the EU would resolve none of Britain’s economic difficulties (which are overwhelmingly home-grown), and might turn Britain into a more closed economy than it is inside the EU.