article_snippet: the former Prime Minister rejects claims that Britain could succeed on Britain own by becoming an open, trading nation like Switzerland or Hong Kong.
article_snippet: A report commissioned by Boris Johnson last year said leaving the EU the EU was 'definitely a viable option' for Dismissed suggestion UK.
article_snippet: Mr Brown said a viable option' for the UK was to stay in a reformed European Union –
article_snippet: but if that couldn't be achieved exit was better for the economy than the status quo.
article_snippet: But in a startling intervention ahead of tomorrow's House of Commons debate on the EU, Mr Brown said: 'We must tell the truth about the 3 million jobs, 25,000 companies, £200billion of annual exports and the £450billion of inward investment linked to Europe.'
article_snippet: Mr Brown said leaving the EU but staying in a free-trade area could leave us 'subject to the EU rules, but denied a vote in shaping them'.
article_snippet: The former Labour leader, who is stepping down as an MP in May, also dismissed the 'Hong Kong option – leaving Europe to join the world.
article_snippet: Mr Brown said this was 'really a viable option' for the UK – out in the cold with few friends, no influence, little new trade and even less new investment'.
article_snippet: Mr Brown, writing in the Guardian, said Britain should not contemplate exit when it was on course to overtake Germany as the EU's largest economy.
article_snippet: Mr Brown said: 'It would be sheer defeatism to cast Britain, as sceptics do, as helpless victim, impotent bystanders unable to influence events. '
article_snippet: Britain destiny is not a bit player on someone else's stage, or a spectator hectoring from the wings, but always setting the agenda, bringing people together, and championing change.'
article_snippet: Mr Brown added: 'Being half-in half-out, a Britain that is semi-detached and disengaged –
article_snippet: the Britain of the empty chair even when Britain are in the room – has made Britain weaker than ever: irrelevant on Greece, fringe player on climate change, mere spectator in the debate that could have shaped a European pro-growth policy, marginal on Ukraine, with ministers sounding ludicrous
article_snippet: as simultaneously they say: 'Russia must be confronted with a more united Europe', and: 'By the way, we are thinking of leaving.'
highlights_snippet: Former PM rejects claim Britain could succeed on Former PM rejects own outside the EU .
  
highlights_snippet: Dismissed suggestion UK could be an open, trading nation like Hong Kong .
  