"We want to avoid using the words Brexit or re-join,” says Mike Galsworthy, an idealist who’s smart enough to acknowledge his own idealism.
Achieving even half his objectives would be victory for the European Movement UK, almost the last pro-EU organisation standing after the recriminations of the Remain campaign’s internal strife. As its chairman, Galsworthy’s mission is to build back support for a closer relationship with the EU step by step. The biggest challenge of all may be persuading the public to even consider these issues again, so traumatic was the before, during and after of Brexit.
“Leave won by an inch but took a few miles,” he says. “You don’t want to do that in reverse. Each step back towards the EU needs to be supported by the public and built to last.”
Galsworthy went from a career as a scientist to lobbying the EU over funding. He joined Scientists for Labour in 2013, from which he spun out Scientists for EU in 2015. In 2022 he was invited into the European Movement UK, a membership organisation co-founded by Winston Churchill 75 years ago.
“Now is the right time for us,” he says. “There are so many people who are pro-EU, particularly among the young.”
It’s tough to use reason to counteract what was for many an emotional decision — it can feel like taking a knife to a gunfight. “I thought naively the referendum would provide education about the benefits of the EU. The Leave campaign was better organised and engaged people at local levels. Let’s be blunt, the metropolitan liberal elite were stunned because it was offensive to their values, but they couldn’t explain it. They had taken it for granted. If you don’t fight for it, you’ll lose it.”
According to Bloomberg, Brexit is losing the economy £100 billion a year. Even the OBR estimates say the cost of three per cent of GDP will rise to at least four. Sadiq Khan intervened this month, claiming London’s economy alone has shrunk by £30 billion.
Galsworthy says: “London has lost out but it can take it because it’s strong and well connected. I feel more for the regions who were falling behind before and will get nothing from Brexit even though they voted for it. We have spent a decade going down a dead end. It’s been a phenomenal amount of resource that’s been diverted from the fundamentals that we elect people for.
"We know immigration is good for a country. But we also need to help areas affected by immigration by supporting their public services. When EU migrants stopped coming, our Government had to go begging around the world to fill the gaps — but they didn’t tell the public.”
Labour is treating the subject of Europe with extreme caution, which means — for those who agree with Galsworthy — the misconceptions around Brexit continue to evade scrutiny. “This side of the election Labour will be very defensive. If Keir Starmer comes to power his tone will have to change. He needs to build good relations with his neighbours.”
The sanctimonious “Remoaner” label still cuts through and there remain (apologies) pro-EU commentators who still do not appreciate how negatively that is perceived. Galsworthy isn’t one of them. “Remain were the naysayers and the clingers on to the status quo. We need to be talking about vision for the country.”
By the time Britain is prepared to discuss returning to the EU — which must at least be a decade away — will it even be the same thing he wishes we’d never left? “We shouldn’t be talking about rejoining but about joining the EU at a future date and what kind of arrangements we want to go in on. Brexit didn’t blow the EU apart. There’s always someone saying the EU is going to break up but it’s more robust than ever.”
But how do you convince people to face this a second time? If Britain were a family, our parents would be saying, “let’s not talk about that awful thing again”. Polling indicates 57 per cent of Britons support rejoining, which is interesting but so hypothetical as to be almost meaningless.
“I know most older people don’t want to go back, but you can’t say to younger generations ‘you can’t have this discussion’. They aren’t holding a candle for Brexit because there’s nothing in it for them so of course it isn’t going to last. We all agree we want [the science programme] Horizon so that becomes our first step. Next should be [the student programme] Erasmus — if we can all agree it’s beneficial.”
Along with immigration, the other word that dominated the debate was sovereignty. “Brexit is pure sovereignty shrinkage. Our citizens’ rights to travel, work, live abroad shrunk. Our businesses’ abilities to shape international market rules shrunk. Our scientists’ levers to design the policies of the multinational collaborative world they inhabit shrunk.”
Galsworthy talks of the EU not only in terms of benefits and mutual advantage but of a fortress of human rights and freedoms that cannot be found in any other great power bloc. For him, Europe is not simply a marriage of convenience. He is an evangelist. Converting the natives will be a long and difficult mission.
