Starmer says closer ties with EU single market preferable to a customs union | Trade policy
In the clearest sign that the government is seeking to further deepen ties with Brussels, Keir Starmer said closer ties with the EU single market were preferable to a customs union.
The Prime Minister said Britain should consider “getting even closer” to the single market. “If this is in our national interest… then we should consider it, we should go this far,” he told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.
Responding to some cabinet colleagues who suggested Britain should seek to form a customs union with the EU, Starmer said he did not think that was the answer.
“To achieve greater harmony, it is better for us to look at the single market rather than the customs union,” he said.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Justice Secretary David Lammy have suggested the UK could reap economic benefits from the new customs agreement, as has TUC general secretary Paul Nowak.
Starmer said many things had changed in the last few years, including new trade deals signed under Labour. “I defended the customs union with the EU for many years, but now a lot of water has flowed under the bridge,” he said.
“Why do people ask, ‘Wouldn’t it be better if we went to the customs union?’ I understand what you say. In fact, I think that we have now made agreements with the USA that are in line with our national interests, and agreements with India that are in line with our national interests; “I think it would be better for us to look at the single market rather than the customs union to achieve greater harmony.”
He said there would be no return to EU freedom of movement rights as part of future negotiations but defended the agreement on the youth mobility plan. “We are looking at a youth mobility plan that will enable young people to travel, work, play and experience different European countries.”
Starmer has hinted in recent months that he wants to reconsider strengthening ties with the EU. In November, Nick Thomas-Symonds, the minister responsible for EU negotiations, was promoted to full cabinet rank.
Minouche Shafik, the prime minister’s economic adviser, is among those close to Starmer who has suggested that returning to the customs union at home could be one of the most effective ways to deliver growth.
But Starmer himself has been more reticent; He signed several international trade agreements while in office, including an economic agreement with India and an economic agreement with the United States, which he praised as some of his achievements.
Backbencher pressure is mounting within Labor, with 13 of its MPs backing the Liberal Democrats’ proposal to join the customs union in a House of Commons vote last month.
Streeting’s intervention observer interview Late last year, the idea that a customs union would bring “tremendous economic benefits” was widely seen as a challenge for Starmer amid speculation over the prime minister’s future.
in it report Starmer, along with the BBC, warned his internal rivals that if they re-created the “chaos” of the Conservative Party leadership battles they would open the door to a government led by Nigel Farage.
“I don’t think it would do us any good for a Labor government to revert to the chaos of the last Tory government. That would be a gift to Nigel Farage,” he said.
“We have to be clear; we have to turn the corner, we have to stop the drift in this country, we have to destroy the idea that slogans, easy answers, quick fixes, shortcuts are what will fix the country. They didn’t.”
He said he believed Labor could still win the next election and said he would be judged at that moment: “I have been elected to a five-year term to change this country. I intend to fulfill that mandate. I will be judged at the next general election on whether we have delivered the change people voted for.”
“I think we will be able to turn the corner in 2026 and show evidence of that, and then we will go on to general elections in the coming years to fulfill the mandate that I and the party won in July 2024.”
He said the next election “will be unlike any election we’ve seen in this country in a long, long time.”
“Because my strong view is that a Labor government will oppose a very right-wing proposal on Reform,” he said. “And this proposal for Reformation will be a proposal for the poisonous division of this country. The next election will be about the question: what is it to be English? And I believe that to be English is to be compassionate, to be reasonable, to live and let live, and to be diverse.”
