![\"Prime](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/https:\/\/d1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net\/production\/a47c98e9-0e56-4e5c-aba6-373ad5c7c0ac.jpg\")
Starmer said he wanted \u2018a closer relationship than the one we have at the moment\u2019 with the EU \u00a9 House of Commons<\/p>\nSir Keir Starmer has delivered his strongest rejection yet of calls for Britain to return to the EU customs union, warning that doing so would \u201cunravel\u201d recent trade pacts with the US on cars and pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\n
Starmer\u2019s comments suggest he favours Britain\u2019s post-Brexit freedom to strike deals around the world \u2014 notably with President Donald Trump \u2014 over the complexity of negotiating a return to a European customs area.<\/p>\n
The prime minister also wants to focus on existing talks with Brussels to remove barriers to trade in areas such as food and energy \u2014 along with a youth mobility scheme \u2014 rather than start a wider unpicking of Brexit.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday Nick Thomas-Symonds, Starmer\u2019s European relations minister, travelled to Brussels for what he described as \u201cproductive\u201d talks on the new arrangements.<\/p>\n
Starmer, speaking in the House of Commons, said he wanted \u201ca closer relationship than the one we have at the moment\u201d but warned that a return to a customs union would undo recent deals with Trump, which were particularly beneficial to carmaker Jaguar Land Rover.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving now done significant trade deals with other countries, including the US and India, which are hugely important to the JLR workforce and on pharma, it is not now sensible to unravel what is effectively the best deal with the US that any country has got,\u201d Starmer told MPs.<\/p>\n
Starmer said he wanted \u2018a closer relationship than the one we have at the moment\u2019 with the EU \u00a9 House of Commons<\/p>\n
Sir Ed Davey, Liberal Democrat leader, said: \u201cThe truth is that this government will not succeed unless they get our economy growing strongly again, and the best way to do that is a customs union with Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Re-entering a customs union with the EU, a move supported by some Labour MPs, would require the UK to at least match the bloc\u2019s tariff rates, according<\/a> to Jo\u00ebl Reland of the UK in a Changing Europe think-tank.<\/p>\n While this could deliver some economic benefits, it would have knock-on effects for the UK\u2019s post-Brexit trade deals, which have offered lower tariffs to some countries, including Australia, India and the US, he said. <\/p>\n \u201cA customs union would require the UK government to give up its \u2018independent trade policy\u2019 \u2014 unwinding any concessionary tariffs which undercut EU rates,\u201d Reland said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the EU were to slap major tariffs on US goods, the UK would have to do likewise. The era of using lower tariff rates to draw concessions from the White House would be over,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n