David Lammy the Deputy Prime Minister gestures as he speaks during the annual Labour Party conference in Liverpool, England, Monday, Sept. 29, 2025. via Associated Press
No.10 has slapped down David Lammy after the deputy prime minister suggested rejoining the EU customs union could help boost UK economic growth.
Lammy, who is also the justice secretary, told the News Agents podcast on Wednesday it was “self-evident that leaving the European Union badly damaged our economy, took us out of the market economy and created serious friction, that untruths were being peddled”.
“It’s why every single day that I was foreign secretary, I returned to the subject of our relationship with the European Union,” he said.
Pressed specifically on whether he thinks the UK should join a customs union, Lammy initially dodged the question before saying: “That is not currently our policy.
“That’s not currently where we are. But you can see countries like Turkey with a customs union seemingly benefitting and seeing growth in their economy and again, that’s self-evident.”
The comments marked the strongest pro-EU intervention yet from a senior minister.
But Lammy carefully added that his remarks are “subject to collective responsibility”, meaning he has to speak in line with the prime minister.
Even so, a No.10 spokesperson hit back at the comments, telling reporters on Friday: “We are strengthening relations with the EU whilst sticking to our red lines.
“The prime minister reiterated on Monday evening at the Lady Mayor’s Banquet.”
Keir Starmer launched an outspoken attack on the UK’s EU exit earlier this week, and warned against calls for the UK to quit Nato and the European Convention of Human Rights next.
He noted that the country is still “dealing with the consequences” of the vote to leave the EU in 2016.
In his annual Lady Mayor’s Banquet speech at the Guildhall in London, Starmer said Brexit had damaged the economy and led to “the degradation of political debate”.
The PM’s spokesperson also told reporters: “There’s no credible economic vision for Britain not positioning us as an open trading economy.
“We have to be grown up about trade-offs. We have redefined bonds with EU and stuck to our red lines.”
They added: “The Brexit vote was fair, and the PM will always accept that. Promises were made to the people that were not fulfilled.”
The prime minister’s chief secretary Darren Jones had a similar response to No.10 when asked about Lammy’s comments in the Commons on Thursday.
Jones replied: “I have to confess I have not listened to the News Agents podcast he refers to, but what is self-evident is what is said in this House and not in podcasts.”
Starmer made it clear the UK would not rejoin the EU customs union on Wednesday, shortly after the government was urged to join to consider it in a bid to improve growth.
Baroness Shafik, the PM’s chief economics adviser, reportedly called for closer EU ties in the run up to the Budget.
But Lammy’s comments come as Labour ministers are becoming much more outspoken about the negative consequences of Brexit.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said on Wednesday that Labour should undo the “economic damage done by Brexit”.
Similarly, chancellor Rachel Reeves said back in October: “Things like austerity, the cuts to capital spending and Brexit have had a bigger impact on our economy than even was projected back then.
“That’s why we are unashamedly rebuilding our relations with the European Union to reduce some of those costs that were, in my view, needlessly added to businesses since 2016 and since we formally left a few years ago.”
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