Nick Thomas-Symonds, Labour’s shadow cabinet officer, has denied reports that the party would seek a ‘high-alignment deal’ with the EU if returned to government at the next general election.
A paper from Eurasia Group, a political consultancy, reportedly cited anonymous “senior Labour insiders” as saying that the party would seek to re-enter the EU customs union.
Such a plan was first proposed by former prime minister Theresa May but was rejected by parliament in 2019.
Clear red lines
However, Thomas-Symonds, a former shadow trade minister, denied the reports, insisting the party has “clear red lines” on working with the EU which did not include a customs union.
“Labour has long been clear that we are committed to making Brexit work. We have set out clear red lines on the future of our relationship with the European Union: no return to the single market, the customs union or return to freedom of movement”.
He insisted Labour had not changed its stance, which relied upon a constructive and friendly relationship with the EU, and included a proposed veterinary agreement to help reduce border friction for food goods, as well as deals for the creative and financial services sectors.
‘Symbolic’ debate
David Henig, UK director of European Centre for International Political Economy, said that a customs union wasn’t a realistic proposition at the moment.
“I'm sure there are some Labour folk who would like this idea, but I don't really see it happening, the required trade-offs are too difficult both for UK political opinion and in terms of negotiability right now.”
Anton Spisak, a political economist, formerly at the Tony Blair institute, said that the political costs of fixing regulatory barriers are “much lower that the customs related barriers,” adding that the former involves easier domestic legislation while the latter requires “redrawing entire trade deals”.
No re-write
Labour leader Keir Starmer had previously said he would seek to “re-write” much of the deal if his party wins the next general election, widely expected later this year.
The EU ambassador to the UK, Pedro Serrano, indicated that the EU was “favourable” to the possibility of an agreement on sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS) in the future, speaking on a panel session in January.
However, late last month (26 March), EU sources told the Telegraph that Labour had scaled back its planned renegotiation after receiving a cold response from European authorities.
Labour peer Peter Mandelson, himself a former EU trade commissioner, also played down the chances of Starmer rejoining the EU, saying that while European figures wanted a more stable and constructive relationship, there was no desire on either side for the UK to start negotiations to return to the EU.
“Reopen a negotiation? You’ve got to be joking,” said the long-standing Labour adviser.
Image: Official parliament portrait, licensed under Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)
