{"id":623753,"date":"2025-12-10T07:33:40","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T07:33:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/623753\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T07:33:40","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T07:33:40","slug":"mps-defy-whip-on-brexit-with-vote-for-uk-rejoining-customs-union-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/623753\/","title":{"rendered":"MPs defy whip on Brexit with vote for UK rejoining customs union"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than a dozen Labour MPs have defied the party whips and voted in favour of the UK rejoining a customs union with the European Union.<\/p>\n

The group, which included Dame Meg Hillier, the influential chair of the Treasury select committee, backed the Liberal Democrat motion in the Commons despite calls from party managers to abstain from the vote.<\/p>\n

As a result, the Liberal Democrat Ten-Minute Rule Bill passed the Commons with a majority of one, after the deputy Speaker cast the deciding vote in its favour.<\/p>\n

\"Member<\/p>\n

Dame Meg Hillier, the chair of the Treasury select committee, voted to rejoin the customs union<\/p>\n

HOUSE OF COMMONS\/REUTERS<\/p>\n

A Labour source said the rebels would not be punished as the instruction to abstain had been only \u201cadvisory\u201d.<\/p>\n

While the vote is not binding, the Labour rebellion is further embarrassment to Downing Street after the deputy prime minister, David Lammy, suggested last week that he was in favour of a change in approach towards rejoining a customs union.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not currently where we are,\u201d Lammy told the News Agents podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But he added: \u201cYou can see countries like Turkey with a customs union seemingly benefiting and seeing growth in their economy. That\u2019s self-evident.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Britain voted to leave the EU in a 2016 referendum<\/p>\n

JASON ALDEN\/BLOOMBERG<\/p>\n

Starmer has insisted that Labour will not change policy on the customs union<\/a> after ruling out membership of that and the single market in the party\u2019s manifesto last year.<\/p>\n

However, a growing number of influential figures in the party are calling for a rethink amid concerns that the government\u2019s current reset will not significantly increase economic growth.<\/p>\n

Studies have estimated that UK GDP is about 4 per cent less than it would have been if the UK had remained within the customs union and single market. In contrast, Starmer\u2019s reset with the EU, which should reduce trade friction at the border, is expected to increase GDP by only about 0.3 per cent.<\/p>\n

Some Labour ministers and MPs are privately calling on the prime minister to commit to rejoining a customs union with the EU as part of the party\u2019s manifesto going into the next election.<\/p>\n

Baroness Minouche Shafik, Starmer\u2019s new economic adviser<\/a>, even suggested bringing it forward as a potential growth measure in the budget.<\/p>\n

\"Minouche<\/p>\n

Minouche Shafik, director of the London School of Economics, has also suggested a change in policy<\/p>\n

JASON ALDEN\/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

The UK-EU Customs Union (Duty to Negotiate) Bill was tabled by Al Pinkerton, the Liberal Democrats\u2019 Europe spokesman, as a so-called \u201cten-minute rule\u201d bill.<\/p>\n

It ended in a surprise tie of 100 votes to 100, giving the deputy Speaker the casting vote in which she backed the bill in line with convention.<\/p>\n

Bills tabled in this manner cannot become law without government support, but they do allow MPs to make a case for new legislation.<\/p>\n

Pinkerton called on MPs to \u201cfind the courage\u201d to admit publicly that Brexit had been an \u201cabject economic failure\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt choked business investment, shattered economic resilience, strangled trade, shrunk the economy and left every single one of us poorer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe economic benefits of Brexit were only ever an illusory mirage.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Dame Priti Patel MP, the shadow foreign secretary, said rejoining a customs union with the EU would be a \u201ccomplete betrayal of the 2016 referendum result\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing David Lammy\u2019s comments last week, and now Labour MPs failing to stand against a customs union, Keir Starmer must commit to never trying to take us into the EU by the back door,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Liberal Democrats\u2019 deputy leader, Daisy Cooper, had earlier clashed with the chancellor Rachel Reeves over the UK\u2019s ties with the European Union.<\/p>\n

Cooper said the Brexit deal had \u201cwrapped up British businesses in red tape and has blown a hole in the public finances\u201d, and called on Reeves to back the bill.<\/p>\n

But Reeves replied: \u201cSince we came into office last year, we\u2019ve reset our relationship with the EU, which is why last May we agreed with the EU an expansive set of changes to our relationship, including on food and farming, on electricity and energy trading, and also on youth mobility and Erasmus<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that the government was \u201ctaking opportunities to trade more with fast-growing economies around the world, including India, and also by getting the first and the best trade deal that anybody has secured with the US\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, claimed the vote was a \u201chistoric victory\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAcross the country, people are crying out for real change and a solution to the cost of living crisis,\u201d he said. A customs union with the EU is the single biggest step the government could take to grow our economy, put money back into people\u2019s pockets and generate billions for our public services, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prime minister must now listen to parliament and the public, drop his self-imposed red lines and finally go for proper growth through an ambitious trade deal with the EU.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than a dozen Labour MPs have defied the party whips and voted in favour of the UK…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-623753","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-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115694116979942901","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623753","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=623753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}