The PM fears that recent deals with the US and India would be scrapped if the UK rejoined.<\/p>\n
Labour’s manifesto ruled out signing up to the existing EU custom union.<\/p>\n
Recently, senior cabinet ministers such as Health Secretary Wes Streeting, external<\/a> and Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy<\/a> have danced along the edges of those red lines, bemoaning what they see as the economic damage of Brexit and extolling the virtues of closer relations. <\/p>\n Earlier this month, 13 Labour MPs backed a Liberal Democrat bill requiring the government to begin negotiations on joining a bespoke customs union with the EU.<\/p>\n The Conservatives and Reform UK oppose rejoining a customs union, and say it would undermine what they see as the benefits of Brexit.<\/p>\n A customs union would eliminate tariffs or taxes on goods between the UK and the EU, reducing bureaucracy. <\/p>\n But critics point out that it would also severely curtail the ability of the UK to strike bespoke global trade deals as the EU would place a common tariff on all goods from outside the customs union area, and would expect the UK to conform to common standards.<\/p>\n In a BBC interview, Nowak said: “2026 really needs to be the year when the government gets to grips with the cost of living crisis.”<\/p>\n He said that “one of the reasons we are seeing prices so high in our supermarkets is because of that bad Brexit deal”, adding: “Absolutely the government should rule nothing out. They should look at every option for our relationship with the European Union up to and including a customs union.<\/p>\n “I go round workplaces week in week out – aerospace, automative, steel – and having a good deal with Europe is essential.”<\/p>\n Nowak, who became general secretary of the TUC in 2023, also said the government must act on a wide range of fronts to make people feel better off, or risk paying a political price.<\/p>\n He pointed to research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, external<\/a> which suggested that voters who felt financially insecure were abandoning Labour at a greater rate than those who felt more secure. <\/p>\n The TUC itself commissioned polling suggesting one in five people were skipping some meals, and one in three expected their financial situation to worsen.<\/p>\n Nowak praised action the government had already announced to help some families, such as lifting the two-child benefit cap, but said the government should do more.<\/p>\n As TUC leader, Nowak represents 47 trade unions with a collective membership of more than five million people. <\/p>\n