Ruth Lea: 'British taxpayers pour huge sums into the EU's coffers'

Swiss-style link with EU ‘could have saved British families £428 every year’

Switzerland’s long and largely successful relationship with the European Union – an on-off engagement that has never got as far as a marriage – has come in for huge praise from one of Britain’s top economists.

Ruth Lea, former head of the policy unit at the Institute of Directors and a governor of the London School of Economics, has carried out detailed research into the history of the bilateral negotiations between Berne and Brussels.

And she has reached the conclusion that if Britain could have agreed on a similar arms-length relationship with the EU every family in Britain would be saving £428 a year.

Now, of course, the Lisbon Treaty has been ratified by all EU member states and has become part of British law.

Ruth Lea’s research team worked out that Britain’s negotiators should have been able to claw back up to £10.8 billion every year.

In her wide ranging survey she reports: “British taxpayers pour huge amounts of money into the EU’s coffers and really don’t get a very good deal in return.”

And she says a Swiss style relationship – retaining free trade access to EU markets and voluntarily cooperating in other areas – would have let Britain regain control of key policy areas.

After an early career at the Treasury, Ruth Lea has held a number of top jobs in the City of London, ranging from directorships to advisory positions with leading names like Mitsubishi Bank, Lehman Brothers, Global Vision and the Arbuthnot Banking Group.