Chancellor Rachel Healey has formally asked the European Union to let the UK join the Made in Europe programme, a scheme designed to boost industrial competitiveness across the bloc. Her pitch? That deeper ties with Britain would somehow benefit everyone involved, rather than creating new barriers.
This is the financial equivalent of showing up at your mate’s house after ghosting him for six years and asking if you can join his investment club. The UK spent the better part of a decade telling Europe it did not need them, voted to leave their club, and spent another four years negotiating the messiest divorce in modern history. Now, facing the reality that splendid isolation is neither splendid nor particularly isolated, Healey is knocking on the door asking if there is room for one more at the table.
The Made in Europe programme is serious stuff—it coordinates industrial strategy, supply chains, and investment across member states. It is basically the EU’s way of saying: we are keeping our manufacturing base competitive together, and outsiders need not apply. The fact that Healey thinks Britain can simply waltz in on the strength of “we promise not to be difficult this time” suggests someone has not been paying attention to how leverage works.
Here is what actually matters: if the UK wants in, it will have to accept EU rules it spent years rejecting. That is the real punchline. You cannot have the benefits of the club without the membership fee—and in this case, the fee is sovereignty, which the government has spent the last few years insisting was priceless.