UK has to accept staying in customs union ‘sooner or later’

Theresa May’s government will “sooner or later” have to concede that the UK must remain in a customs union, Scotland’s First Minister said.

Nicola Sturgeon made clear in her view this was the “only credible and sustainable” option for the UK after Brexit, but added that the Prime Minister was only listening to “mad Brexiteers”.

While some Tory politicians, such as Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, want the UK to pull out of both the customs union and the single market, Ms Sturgeon insisted maintaining these relationships would be in the country’s best interests.

She spoke out after a meeting with the European Union’s Brexit chief negotiator Michel Barnier in Brussels.

Ms Sturgeon said afterwards: “I was very clear with Michel Barnier this morning that I wanted to see not just Scotland but the UK as a whole remaining within the single market, that’s the position the Scottish Government has taken all along.”

On the issue of a customs union, she told Politico: “Staying in the customs union is in Scotland’s interest, but it is not just in Scotland’s interest.

“In my very, very strong view it is in the interest of the whole of the UK to stay in the customs union. It (the UK Government) would be cutting off their nose to spite their face if they turned their back on that.”