{"id":673481,"date":"2026-01-04T15:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T15:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/673481\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T15:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T15:02:11","slug":"starmer-says-closer-ties-with-eu-single-market-preferable-to-a-customs-union-trade-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/673481\/","title":{"rendered":"Starmer says closer ties with EU single market preferable to a customs union | Trade policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Closer ties with the EU single market are preferable to a customs union, Keir Starmer<\/a> has said, in his clearest sign yet that the government is seeking to further deepen links with Brussels.<\/p>\n

The prime minister said the UK should consider \u201ceven closer alignment\u201d with the single market. \u201cIf it\u2019s in our national interest \u2026 then we should consider that, we should go that far,\u201d he told the BBC\u2019s Laura Kuenssberg.<\/p>\n

In a riposte to some cabinet colleagues who have suggested the UK should seek to form a customs union with the EU, Starmer said he did not think that was the answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are better looking to the single market rather than the customs union for our further alignment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The health secretary, Wes Streeting, and the justice secretary, David Lammy, have both suggested the UK could get economic benefits from a new customs deal \u2013 as has the TUC general secretary, Paul Nowak.<\/p>\n

Starmer said that much had changed in the last few years, including the signing of new trade deals under Labour<\/a>. \u201cI argued for a customs union for many years with the EU, but a lot of water has now gone under the bridge,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do understand why people are saying: \u2018Wouldn\u2019t it be better to go to the customs union?\u2019 I actually think that now we\u2019ve done deals with the US which are in our national interest, now we\u2019ve done deals with India which are in our national interest, we are better looking to the single market rather than the customs union for our further alignment.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said there would be no return to EU freedom of movement rights as part of any future negotiations, but defended the deal for a youth mobility scheme<\/a>. \u201cWe are looking at a youth mobility scheme which will be for young people to travel, to work, to enjoy themselves in different European countries, to have that experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starmer has given hints in recent months he would like to revisit strengthening ties with the EU. In November, Nick Thomas-Symonds, the minister in charge of EU negotiations, was promoted to full cabinet rank.<\/p>\n

Minouche Shafik, the prime minister\u2019s economic adviser, is among those close to Starmer who have suggested internally that returning to the customs union could be one of the most effective ways of generating growth.<\/p>\n

But Starmer himself has been more reticent, having signed numerous international trade deals while in office including with India and an economic agreement with the US, which he has been able to tout as some of his successes.<\/p>\n

Backbench pressure has been growing within the Labour party, with 13 of its MPs backing a Liberal Democrat proposal to join a customs union in a Commons vote last month.<\/p>\n

The intervention from Streeting in an Observer interview<\/a> late last year that a customs union would bring \u201cenormous economic benefits\u201d was widely seen as a challenge to Starmer amid speculation over the prime minister\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

In his interview<\/a> with the BBC, Starmer warned his internal rivals they would be opening the door to a government led by Nigel Farage if they recreated the \u201cchaos\u201d of the Tory leadership battles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I don\u2019t think will help us is if a Labour government turns back to the chaos of the last Tory government. That would gift Nigel Farage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to be clear \u2013 we need to turn the corner; we need to stop the drift in this country; we need to shoot down this idea that slogans, easy answers, quick fixes, shortcuts are what fix the country. They didn\u2019t fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he believed Labour could still win the next election \u2013 and said he would be judged at that moment: \u201cI was elected on a five-year mandate to change this country. I intend to deliver on that mandate. I will be judged at the next general election on whether we have brought about the change that people voted for.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that in 2026 we will be able to turn the corner and show the evidence of that, and then we\u2019ll press on over the coming years into that general election to deliver on the mandate that I and the party won in July 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the next election would be \u201cunlike any election we\u2019ve seen in this country for a very, very long time\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause my strong view is it\u2019ll be a Labour government up against a very rightwing proposition in Reform,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that Reform proposition will be a proposition of toxic divide of this country. The next election is going to be about a question of, what is it to be British? And I believe to be British is to be compassionate, reasonable, live and let live, and diverse.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Closer ties with the EU single market are preferable to a customs union, Keir Starmer has said, in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187],"class_list":{"0":"post-673481","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115837438827331127","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673481","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=673481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}