{"id":612724,"date":"2025-12-05T00:39:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T00:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/612724\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T00:39:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T00:39:16","slug":"david-lammy-says-rejoining-eu-customs-union-could-boost-uk-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/612724\/","title":{"rendered":"David Lammy says rejoining EU customs union could boost UK economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deputy prime minister David Lammy<\/a> has suggested that rejoining the European Union\u2019s customs union could increase economic growth \u2013 as ministers increasingly hit out at the financial damage caused by Brexit.<\/p>\n

Mr Lammy refused seven times in an interview to rule out reversing Brexit, arguing that leaving the EU badly damaged the UK economy and saying Labour should consider closer integration with Brussels.<\/p>\n

The OBR forecasts that leaving the EU will reduce long-run productivity in Britain by 4 per cent.<\/p>\n

\"Poppypremium<\/p>\n

Poppypremium (PA)<\/p>\n

Before the Budget, chancellor Rachel Reeves said Brexit<\/a> had an even bigger impact on Britain\u2019s economy<\/a> than critics predicted.<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr Lammy said that rejoining the customs union was not currently government policy but that it was self-evident that other countries had seen growth after doing so.<\/p>\n

Health secretary Wes Streeting said on Wednesday that Labour should undo \u201cthe economic damage done by Brexit\u201d.<\/p>\n

Baroness Shafik, prime minister Sir Keir Starmer\u2019s chief economics adviser, and some senior figures close to No 10 are also reportedly pushing for closer ties with the EU.<\/p>\n

Ms Reeves said in October: \u201cThings like austerity, the cuts to capital spending and Brexit have had a bigger impact on our economy than even was projected back then.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Labour\u2019s manifesto pledged not to rejoin the single market or customs union but pressure over the issue is mounting from MPs and advisers following poor growth forecasts.<\/p>\n

Mr Lammy, who is also justice secretary, was asked on the News Agents podcast about the idea of being part of the customs union again, said: \u201cThat is not currently our policy. That\u2019s not currently where we are.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you can see countries like Turkey with a customs union seemingly benefiting and seeing growth in their economy, and again, that\u2019s self-evident.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that his comments were \u201csubject to collective responsibility\u201d, implying that he should follow Sir Keir\u2019s position.<\/p>\n

But Darren Jones, Sir Keir\u2019s chief secretary, rebuked Mr Lammy in the Commons, saying that Labour\u2019s policy would be announced in Parliament, not \u201con podcasts\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deputy prime minister David Lammy has suggested that rejoining the European Union\u2019s customs union could increase economic growth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[802,6852,6217,90931,2000,299,5187,1699,60575,8414,191211,619,10051],"class_list":{"0":"post-612724","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-customs-union","10":"tag-david-lammy","11":"tag-deputy-prime-minister","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-european","15":"tag-european-union","16":"tag-growth-forecasts","17":"tag-labour","18":"tag-mr-lammy","19":"tag-rachel-reeves","20":"tag-uk-economy"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115664176999622520","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612724","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=612724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}