Autumn Debate 2025: 'This House Would Rejoin the EU Single Market'

The autumn 2025 debate brought together four student speakers and two expert guests to argue the proposition that the United Kingdom should seek to rejoin the European Union's Single Market — while remaining outside the EU itself. The proposition attracted the largest audience in FEI debate history, with over 150 students, teachers, and guests attending.

The proposition team argued that the economic costs of Single Market exit — estimated at 4–6% of long-run GDP by the OBR and independent academic studies — far outweigh the sovereignty gains of an independent trade policy that has failed to generate compensating agreements. The opposition team countered that Single Market membership would require accepting EU regulation without representation, that the economic models are based on contested assumptions, and that the UK's long-run economic trajectory depends on regulatory agility rather than market access.