Free trade deal outside a customs union? Non!
It’s make your mind up time, says EU boss Tories told: Put jobs before internal bickering
BRITAIN will face trade barriers and businesses will suffer if we quit the customs union after Brexit, warned EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier.
Yet the Prime Minister, desperate to appease Tory hardliners, has ruled out staying in any type of union with Europe.
The Government said it wanted a “highly streamlined customs arrangement” or a new “customs partnership” with the EU.
But after their meeting at No10 yesterday, Mr Barnier said: “Without a customs union and outside the single market, barriers to trade and goods and services are unavoidable. Time’s come to make a choice.”
Brexit Secretary David Davis said the UK wanted a free trade deal with the EU and the freedom to strike deals with other countries, where opportunities were growing. But Labour MP Heidi Alexander, a supporter of pro-EU group Open Britain, said: “Having cake and eating cake has never been a negotiating strategy. We cannot enjoy the ‘exact same benefits’ outside the single market, there is no ‘frictionless trade’ outside the customs union.”
A Labour spokesman said: “The Government must put jobs and the economy first, not their own internal party wrangling.”
Jeremy Corbyn risks leading Labour to a general election disaster if young voters see him as pro-Brexit, says a YouGov survey. It estimated Labour’s vote share would plummet from today’s 42% to just 30%.
Having and eating cake has never been a strategy. HEIDI ALEXANDER ON TRADE TALKS WITH EU