IS A FUNNY OLD GAME FOR THE UK EU support?

BREXIT Secretary David Davis seeks tariff-free trade outside the European single market and customs union.

He wants this sorted at the same time as a divorce bill which is as low as possible.

This is a “have our cake and eat it” position, like a game in which British Buccaneers gets all the free kicks.

It would cost the UK taxpayers even less than now. EU manufacturers like Fiat, BMW and Siemens would be delighted because they would

EXCLUSIVE not be priced out of the market. City financial institutions could still trade with the EU if they accepted rules imposed by Brussels. But the UK would have no say on those rules.

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox wants nations with EU free trade deals to extend them on the same basis to Britain.

International currency markets are not convinced Davis will score, which is why the pound is down 15 per cent. LABOUR leader Jeremy Corbyn would keep the UK in the single market and customs union for a transition period of two to four years.

That means on March 29, 2019 there would be no final whistle and the two teams would play into extra time.

The single market lets goods move as easily from Croatia to Latvia as Cumbria to Cornwall.

It also means the free movement of people – so the present level of EU migration would stay. And we would pay a hefty annual fee of around £13billion to keep it going. The membership fee would cost each taxpayer £433.

There’s talk of staying in the single market like Norway if a deal can be reached on limiting EU migration. This is unlikely. The single market and free movement go hand in hand.

The easy movement of goods also means accepting continued oversight by the European Court of Justice.

Mr Corbyn is postponing the day the UK is sent off. Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer says being in the customs union – like Turkey – might be another “possible end destination” for Labour.

The advantage is it allows goods – but not people – to move freely around the EU so we could control migration.

And food exports like the great British banger would not be held up at any borders – the food industry likes it so long as agriculture is included.

The drawback is we have to impose common EU tariffs on all goods from outside the EU. That makes striking trade deals with countries like China, America, India, Japan, Canada and Australia difficult as we would have to impose an extra EU charge on their products.

Lost trade could cost each worker £875.

Pro-EU Labour MPs Alison McGovern and Heidi Alexander say the idea gives them “that excited but exasperated feeling when your team’s so close to scoring yet can’t get the ball in the back of the net”.