Rejoining EU customs union should be on the table, says London mayor, with UK-Brexit deal due for review
- Sadiq Khan said there should be the possibility of being back in the trade alliance when the Brexit deal with the EU comes up for review this year
- He said ‘the economic cost of this extreme hard Brexit is huge’ and criticised the so-called pact of silence, saying ‘you can’t talk about being close to the EU’
Senior figures of the UK’s opposition Labour Party have argued for closer post-Brexit ties with the European Union and say rejoining the customs union should be considered.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said rejoining the trade alliance should be on the table when the Brexit deal with the EU comes up for review in 2024.
“Let’s have the conversation,” Khan said in a Q&A at the Fabian Society conference in London on Saturday.
“I’m not saying today we should rejoin the European Union. What I’m saying is that (shadow foreign secretary) David Lammy is onto something when he’s saying we should have a closer relationship with the European Union.”
He said that “the economic cost of this extreme hard Brexit is huge” as he criticised the “omerta”, or pact of silence, meaning “you can’t talk about being close to the European Union, joining the single market, joining the customs union”.
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Khan also said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government is using its Rwanda deportation plan “in the same way they used Brexit – as a deflection of all the problems they’ve caused to our country”.
