Best for Britain
What is Best for Britain?
"Founded in 2017 by academics, economists, entrepreneurs, and community leaders, Best for Britain is a network of campaigns and research organisations dedicated to providing the evidence-led answers that fix Britain in an era of declining living standards, low-quality information, and instability caused by the degradation of politics.
Today, we are a team of researchers, data scientists, strategists, and activists driven by a love of our country, and the people that form the nations within it.
We conduct research and polling to help politicians lead debate, not follow it. We design policy for whoever is in government, today or tomorrow. And we give voters the tools to persuade, and hold to account, those in power." (from their "about" page, July 2026)
Pro-Europe groups have long had good connections with Best for Britain and value the input they make to our case for rejoining. A report in June 2026 corresponds exactly to what Selfe co-founder Nick Hill had asked about: how we can campaign positively by talking about the financial boost to the funds available to the Chancellor from rejoining the EU: see here: How to supercharge the economy.
In correspondence with SELFE Tom Brufatto summarised the main points of interest as follows:
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Membership of the EU would supercharge the UK economy by at least £92bn (3.6% of UK GDP). That means:
- By rejoining the EU, we would recover at least 90% of the economic damage caused by Brexit, and:
- Membership of the EU would generate six times the economic growth of all post-Brexit trade deals combined.
- Membership of the EU would have a transformative effect on the UK economy, with regions such as the Midlands, Yorkshire and North East (Britain’s former industrial and manufacturing heartlands) feeling the economic benefits the most.
- No other policy lever available to the UK Government can deliver this amount of economic growth.
- We need to increase our defence spending to face down the threats posed by Putin's Russia and make us less reliant on the US. To do so we are going to have to grow the UK economy, and as such membership of the EU is the best way to bolster the UK's and Europe's defence.
- A UK-EU Customs Union would only provide a disappointing 0.5%-0.7% of long run GDP growth. In return, a Prime Minister would have to cede control of at least part of our trade and tariff policy, with little to no say in how those decisions are made. We would also have to have some difficult conversations with those countries with which we have signed trade deals since leaving the EU.
- Joining the Single Market would provide a more substantial long-run GDP boost of 1.5%-2.1%. However, it would require the UK to become a ‘rule taker’, with limited say over the regulations affecting most of the UK economy - an unprecedented and unsuitable decision for a leading G7 economy such as the UK.
See also a more recent BfB report: The cost of Brexit.