Former chancellor George Osborne has called for Britain to rejoin the European Union’s customs union, arguing that Brexit has damaged trade and left the UK economy “gone off a cliff”.
Osborne, who resigned as David Cameron’s chancellor after the 2016 referendum, said rebuilding economic links with the EU was increasingly necessary to address Britain’s weak growth and investment performance.
“Brexit has been a mess,” he told the press. “Britain has basically gone off a cliff.
“It has had a huge impact on the British economy. It is clearly poorer than it would otherwise be.”
Osborne acknowledged that full EU membership would be politically difficult almost a decade after the referendum. But he argued that rejoining the customs union would be a comparatively straightforward way to reduce trade barriers without requiring Britain to restore free movement of people.
“[The customs union] was never part of the Brexit debate. No one knew we were leaving it and it has had a devastating impact on trade,” said Osborne.
His intervention comes as the government attempts to address persistently weak economic growth and deepen practical cooperation with European governments.
The former chancellor argued that the original case for leaving the customs union — that Britain would use its newfound freedom to secure lucrative trade agreements elsewhere — had failed to deliver the transformation promised by Brexit campaigners.
“The reason we weren’t supposed to be in the customs union – according to the Brexiteers – was these great trade deals we were going to strike with America. That all looks pretty fanciful now.”
Osborne said the debate had shifted as the scale of Britain’s growth problem became clearer.
“People now realise you can’t look at Britain’s growth problem without beginning to think, ‘how can we revive trade with the continent, how can we get investment?’” he told the Independent.
Rejoining the customs union would not necessarily require Britain to accept the EU’s free movement rules, Osborne said, potentially making the proposal more politically viable.
He added: “If I was Andy Burnham, I don’t see why you wouldn’t rejoin the customs union.”
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has already signalled a willingness to pursue closer relations with European governments, although the government has stopped short of endorsing a return to the customs union.
“working alongside Europe is the key to driving a stronger Britain,” Burnham has said, in the context of co-operation with French authorities over efforts to reduce small boat crossings.
The prime minister has also blamed Brexit for part of Britain’s economic malaise, describing the decision to leave the EU as having “ushered in a decade of low growth and stalled regeneration”.
Osborne’s intervention nevertheless highlights the political challenge facing any government seeking closer integration with the EU. Rejoining the customs union could reduce friction in Britain’s largest nearby trading relationship, but would also constrain the UK’s ability to set independent external tariffs — one of the central economic arguments advanced by Brexit supporters.
Nearly a decade after the referendum, the debate is therefore shifting from whether Brexit should have happened to how far Britain should now seek to reverse its economic consequences.
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