Overview
- Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy said Brexit had badly damaged the economy and cited countries in customs unions as benefiting, while stressing such a move is not current policy.
- Pressed repeatedly on the issue in a podcast interview, Lammy declined to rule out a customs-union option, pointing to Turkey’s arrangement as an example.
- Keir Starmer and No 10 restated that Labour will not rejoin the single market or a customs union, with chief secretary Darren Jones saying new policies would be set out in Parliament, not on podcasts.
- Baroness Minouche Shafik, the prime minister’s chief economics adviser, has reportedly argued privately that a customs-union deal could cut business costs and lift exports.
- Officials continue technical UK–EU talks on alignment in areas such as food standards, carbon and electricity trading, and a youth mobility scheme, as government sources warn a customs union could complicate trade deals with the US and India and polling shows support for closer ties but less for rejoining core EU structures.