Labour has been accused of “salami-slicing our relationship with the EU” in order to reverse Brexit, after ministers hinted at joining an EU Customs Union. Broadcaster Mark Dolan has fumed at the prospect of a new customs deal with the bloc, following Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy’s call for the UK to sign a new agreement. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister said: “I do want a closer relationship to the one we’ve got at the moment, we are moving towards that.”
Mr Dolan has criticised the idea of an EU Customs Union, claiming it would be a “betrayal” of Brexit. He told the Daily Expresso podcast: “It would be a democratic crisis, because the people that voted for Brexit that feel it hasn’t been fulfilled would see this ultimately as a betrayal.”
Rachel Reeves failed to rule out a customs union on Wednesday (Image: Getty)
He said: “It’s salami slicing our relationship with the EU, it’s death by a thousand cuts, so that it becomes inevitable that the easiest thing will be to go back in because we’re already halfway there, and that’s what’s so insidious about this customs union idea.
“It will not make a single viewer of this show any wealthier. It won’t boost the economy… what it will do is slow down the project of independent sovereign Britain.”
MPs this week voted to begin talks with Brussels on a new customs union, which would mean the UK obeying EU trade rules. While the vote is not binding on the Government, 13 Labour MPs backed the plan.
Mr Dolan continued: “This is a Labour Party that is predominantly a remain party in its political sympathies, and this idea of a customs union is utter insanity; it makes no sense. 80% of our economy is services which would not be enhanced by a customs union.”
He added that “billions will be coming from our economy back into the Eurozone” as “there’ll be a cost because it’s a tax, it’s going to be tariffs dictated by the EU – they’ll be raising that tax”.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves became the latest Cabinet Minister to refuse to rule the move out. On Wednesday, she was asked by the House of Commons Treasury Committee if this was the Government’s plan, replying: “Good try.”
The Chancellor yesterday highlighted figures which she said showed trade barriers with the EU had led to a 4 per cent reduction in productivity. She told the Commons Treasury Committee that the Government wanted to negotiate more EU deals in addition to the “reset” agreed earlier this year.
