Labour wants to team up with the EU to strike trade deals together after Brexit
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Loading... - Kelly Cable
- 23 Feb 2021
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Labour wants to team up with the EU to strike joint trade deals after Brexit , a top MP revealed tonight.
Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry signalled a key shift in the party's Brexit stance ahead of a speech by Jeremy Corbyn on Monday.
Ms Thornberry admitted Labour wants a customs union between Britain and the EU that is "pretty much like" what exists now.
Critics say that would ban Britain from signing its own trade deals with countries outside the EU - a key demand of Brexiteers.
But Ms Thornberry suggested Britain could get round the problem by negotiating "in partnership" with the EU.
Asked if Labour's policy would ban Britain from striking its own trade deals with other countries, without the EU's say-so, she told LBC: "No, I wouldn’t put it that way, I would put it this way.
“I would say that we would take advantage of being in a partnership with the EU in order to be able to, for example, negotiate with China.
“China wouldn’t just be negotiating with Britain, it would be Britain and the EU."
Asked another time if Britain would be precluded from negotiating its own trade agreements, she said: “If we were during these negotiations to say to the EU 'if you want to negotiate with third parties, with third countries, we could be connected to that agreement.'
"It would be to the advantage of Europe that you have a great big economy like Britain as part of your negotiations.
"But we will need to be part of forming those relationships and forming those rules."
It comes after months of pressure from Labour members to shift the party's policy towards closer ties with Europe.
Ms Thornberry said a customs union was the only way to maintain “frictionless trade with Europe without tariffs" and prevent a hard border with Northern Ireland.
The party "seriously can’t think of anything else" to solve those problems, so "of course we will need to be in a form of customs union," she said.
She added: “Technically because we’re leaving the EU we can’t be in the customs union that we’re in now.
"So we leave, and then we have to negotiate a new agreement.
“That, we think, is likely to be a customs union that will look pretty much like the current customs union.”
Last year Shadow Trade Secretary Barry Gardiner said staying in the EU customs union would be a "disaster".
Ms Thornberry said: "We’ve been talking about this and I think Barry agrees that we need to be in a customs union after we leave the EU."
