Best for Britain, the anti-Brexit campaign group, argues in a new report that the UK could finish EU accession talks within a single five-year Parliament — quicker, it says, than Britain's 40-month trade negotiation with India (according to the report).

Its 'experts' are two named insiders quoted in the report, not an independent panel: Sir Jonathan Faull, a former European Commission director-general, and Sandro Gozi, the MEP chairing the European Parliament's UK-EU partnership assembly. The study was commissioned by a group whose explicit goal is UK re-entry — credible testimony, not neutral consensus.

The case rests on precedent: Finland went from application to membership in three years (1992–1995), with accession talks taking about 13 months — shorter than the UK's 20-month trade deal with New Zealand. Twenty-two countries have joined via the same Article 49 process; new members aren't required to adopt the euro or hold a referendum before talks open.

The timing also collides with Brussels' own queue: Ukraine, Moldova and six Western Balkan states are working through the same Article 49 process, some after more than a decade. Hypothesis: a fast UK return would strain the EU's message that membership is earned through years of reform, not claimed on a quicker clock by a wealthy former member. Supporting this: the report concedes Finland's pace was unusual; against it, Brussels fast-tracked Ukraine's candidate status in 2022.

It matters in Washington too. The UK's post-Brexit trade pitch to the US rests on being a nimble, EU-independent dealmaker — the same deals cited above as speed benchmarks. Hypothesis: a credible rejoin timeline would undercut that pitch, since EU membership folds trade policy back into Brussels' common commercial policy. Supporting this: EU members can't sign independent trade deals; against it, no UK party currently backs rejoining.

What to watch: whether any mainstream UK party puts EU return on its platform before the next general election, and how Brussels reacts to a wealthy founding member asking to rejoin a queue that already includes Kyiv.