Corbyn wants new EU customs union
BRITAIN should enter a new customs union with the European Union, opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said on Monday, setting up a possible parliamentary defeat for Prime Minister Theresa May who has vowed to leave the arrangement after Brexit.
After months watching Mrs May’s Conservatives voice deep divisions on the EU without committing himself to a clear vision of life outside the bloc, Mr Corbyn said he wanted a “bespoke” customs union with exemptions for Britain on a number of issues.
“Labour would seek to negotiate a new comprehensive UKEU customs union to ensure that there are no tariffs with Europe and to help avoid any need for a hard border in Northern Ireland,” Mr Corbyn told students and local politicians at Coventry University.
“But we are also clear that the option of a new UK customs union with the EU would need to ensure the UK has a say in future trade deals. Labour would not countenance a deal that left Britain as a passive recipient of rules decided elsewhere by others. That would mean ending up as mere rule takers.”
A spokesman for the European Commission declined to comment but one diplomat said on condition of anonymity: “Corbyn’s speech is most welcome but he cannot expect the EU single market to become the cherry on his ‘new cake’.”
A Labour source said there was no “plan B” if the EU rejected the plan under which the party would press for “protections, clarifications or exemptions where necessary” for privatisation, public service competition directives, state aid and procurement rules.
The CBI, the leading business lobby, said a customs union would “help grow trade without accepting freedom of movement or payments to the EU”, but it added: “businesses have their eyes wide open on Labour’s overall rhetoric on re-nationalisation”.
Mr Corbyn showed no sign of backing away from those plans, saying he could not accept EU competition rules for sectors such as the Royal Mail, “a natural monopoly”, or the bloc’s rules that dictated during the nationalisation of Royal Bank of Scotland the sale of its “best parts”.
The next election is due in 2022, so the 68-year-old socialist may never get to the negotiating table before Britain leaves the EU. But by defining a clearer position on the trading relationship, he has set up a possible win in parliament.
Eight Conservative rebels have backed an amendment to proposed trade legislation that seeks to bind the government into being in a customs union with the EU.
The vote, expected later this year, could be tight: Mrs May holds a working majority of 13 seats and, while British media said between 10 and 15 of her party might rebel, some proBrexit Labour lawmakers are expected to vote with the government.
“I appeal to MPs of all parties to be prepared to put the people’s interests before the ideological fantasies, join us in supporting the option of a new UK customs union with the EU that would give us a say in future trade agreements,” Mr Corbyn said.