No compromise on the customs union
It is very simple: Britain must leave the customs union. Theresa May has consistently said this, and has offered the European Union interesting solutions for handling the technical problems that would arise from a hard border with Ireland. The EU rejected them out of hand in the same week that peers voted against the Government on the EU Withdrawal Bill. The goal of both is the same – to force the UK to give up and stay in the customs union. This would be totally unacceptable and a betrayal of Brexit.
It would be the worst of both worlds for Britain, being subject to the EU’s trade rules without being able to influence them. And we would be blocked from pursuing separate trade deals with the rest of the world. Economically, this would be catastrophic. Those who imagine European markets are the be-all and end-all for the UK don’t grasp that they are shrinking as a percentage of the world economy, while the developing world is growing fast. To compete, Britain needs to be diversifying its markets and looking further afield – to China, to India, to the economies of the future.
If Remain’s economic case for a customs union is so plainly flawed, they stick to it because their real motivations are political. They want to make the process of leaving the EU appear at once painful, yet so limited in benefits that they can say to the voters “Was it really worth it?” – and thus reverse Brexit altogether. Brussels certainly wants Britain to fail. As Daniel Hannan writes overleaf, the EU fears the alternative, which is a low-tax, low-regulation Britain – if not under this Government then a future one – on its doorstep, acting as a powerful magnet for investment.
Conservative MPs need to remind the Government of its own words and make sure that it remains steadfast. As to the territorial integrity of the UK, and its existence as a single economic area, the matter is non-negotiable and is being cynically manipulated to trap Britain in the customs union by those who are transparently opposed to Brexit in principle. Mrs May has already made plenty of concessions and should make no more. The hour is being reached where points of reasonable compromise have been exhausted.