\nAlamy
\n<\/a><\/p>\nThe Tories accused the Prime Minister of \u201csurrendering our freedom\u201d to appease his Labour backbenchers, and trying to \u201cundo\u201d Brexit.<\/p>\n
Sir Keir added: \u201cI think it\u2019s in our national interest to go further.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I would say about the customs union is that I argued for a customs union for many years with the EU, but a lot of water has now gone under the bridge.<\/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
The Prime Minister insisted freedom of movement \u2013 a core principle of the EU single market \u2013 was off the table as he faced questions about what concessions he was willing to offer in return.<\/p>\n
Asked whether he was prepared to allow EU citizens with no limit to come to the UK, he said: \u201cNo.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we 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
It comes after speculation over the future of the UK\u2019s post-Brexit relationship with the bloc was reignited when the Health Secretary backed a \u201cdeeper trading relationship\u201d with Europe in an interview.<\/p>\n
The remarks were seen by some as a direct challenge to Sir Keir from Mr Streeting, who last year was forced to deny plotting to unseat the Prime Minister after a Labour briefing war.<\/p>\n
Sir Keir has recently faced pressure from his own backbenchers to change course on a customs union, with some 13 Labour MPs backing proposals that would pave the way for such an arrangement in a Commons vote last month.<\/p>\n
Downing Street said later in December that the Government will be sticking to its \u201cred lines\u201d on the EU relationship, which include not rejoining the single market, customs union or returning to freedom of movement.<\/p>\n
Shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel said Labour\u2019s \u201cBrexit betrayal\u201d was becoming \u201cclearer by the day\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a desperate bid to appease his backbenchers, Keir Starmer is pursuing alignment with the single market \u2013 surrendering our freedom to cut regulation and strike our own trade deals,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly the Conservatives will hold Labour to account for trying to undo the democratic decision of the British people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Liberal Democrats said the Government had been \u201ctoo timid\u201d in its ambitions for closer ties with Brussels and was merely \u201ctinkering around the edges\u201d as they reiterated calls for a UK-EU customs union.<\/p>\n
Party leader Sir Ed Davey said: \u201cThis year, the Prime Minister must finally get a grip on the cost-of-living crisis by negotiating an EU-UK customs union, to boost growth and put money back in people\u2019s pockets.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tories accused the Prime Minister of \u201csurrendering our freedom\u201d to appease his Labour backbenchers, and trying to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674065,"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-674064","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\/115838945030877772","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674064","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=674064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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