Conservative shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel said Labour’s “Brexit betrayal” was becoming clearer, and said Sir Keir would be “surrendering our freedom to cut regulation and strike our own trade deals” by pursuing closer alignment with the single market.
Speaking to BBC News, she also said: “He’s unpicking and unravelling Brexit and this is another excuse for him, rather than fixing the fundamental problems that he has created and his government and his chancellor have created in the UK economy.”
Appearing on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesperson Layla Moran welcomed Sir Keir’s “warm language” on EU alignment, and said her party had “long argued this is the direction we should be moving in”.
She said the government needed to be “shifting the big dials” on the economy, but said the Lib Dems would prioritise the customs union over the single market, as they felt the UK could not re-enter the latter without allowing free movement.
At the end of last year, the UK’s most senior trade unionist, Paul Nowak, told the BBC “the closest possible economic and political relationship with the European Union” was “essential” to boost economic growth.
Deputy prime minister David Lammy also told the News Agents podcast last month that rejoining the EU’s customs union was “not currently our policy” – but highlighted that Turkey had seen growth as a result of its own cooperation with the bloc.
Turkey’s deal does not apply to agricultural goods or services but removes point of origin checks, which have proved troublesome for the post-Brexit UK, and has been suggested as an alternative for the UK.