EU first drew red lines over fishing rights four years ago<\/a>, so the PM was facing a capitulation once the fishing agreement came back up for renewal. <\/p>\nHowever, a more sweeping overhaul of Brexit could be on the cards. Speaking in January, EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said: “A Pan-European [customs] area is something we could consider.”<\/p>\n
The UK Government even reportedly started consultations with business over the benefits of the PEM plan that could help cut red tape and improve trade.<\/p>\n
![\"Ursula](\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%205338%203559'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\")
Ursula von der LeyenGETTY<\/p>\n
However, No10 stopped short of labelling the potential agreement a customs union – which has long been a red line for the Government. <\/p>\n
“The arrangement that’s been discussed is not a customs union,” a No10 spokesman said.<\/p>\n
“Our red line has always been that we will never join a single market, freedom of movement, but we’re just not going to get ahead of those discussions.”<\/p>\n
Chancellor Rachel Reeves went further, indicating she was \u201chappy to look\u201d at the prospect of the UK joining the scheme with Europe.<\/p>\n
![\"Rachel](\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%202960%201976'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\")
<\/p>\n
Rachel Reeves<\/p>\n
PA<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cIt was really interesting to see Maros Sefcovic this week suggest the UK might be welcome in that pan-European and Mediterranean customs framework.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are absolutely happy to look at these different proposals because we know that the deal that the previous government secured is not working well enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not working well enough for small businesses trying to export, it\u2019s not working well enough for larger businesses either.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re grown-ups who admit that, whereas the previous government said there were no problems at all.<\/p>\n
![\"Andrew](\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%204496%203000'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\")
<\/p>\n
Tory Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith <\/p>\n
PA<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd where there are constructive ideas we are happy to look at those, as long as they\u2019re consistent with the red lines we set out in our manifesto.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Brexiteers warned at the time that such an arrangement risks “undoing Brexit by the backdoor”. <\/p>\n
Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith said: \u201cThis scheme is not the silver bullet to growth the Government thinks it is.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever Labour negotiates, Britain loses. So, we need to make sure they don\u2019t surrender important assets like our fishing rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must avoid undoing Brexit by the back door by aligning with the EU\u2019s low-growth model.\u201d<\/p>\n
GB News has approached the Cabinet Office for comment.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Brexiteers claim that Sir Keir Starmer’s “Brexit reset” has reduced Britain to becoming the “gimp of Brussels”,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,8274,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-138586","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-membership","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114585388160631479","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Sir](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1748434151_992_sir-keir-starmer.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Ursula](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1748434151_306_ursula-von-der-leyen.jpg\")
Ursula von der LeyenGETTY<\/p>\n![\"Rachel](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1748434152_432_rachel-reeves.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Andrew](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/andrew-griffith.jpg\")
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