Theresa May wins support of Brexiteer Liam Fox for her plan to offer Jeremy Corbyn a temporary customs union
The Trade Secretary said Britain could stay in one until the 2022 election
THERESA May won the crucial support of leading Cabinet Brexiteer Liam Fox yesterday for her plan to offer Jeremy Corbyn a temporary customs union.
The Trade Secretary said he would swallow Britain staying in a customs union until the 2022 General Election, which has been offered to Labour in the cross-party talks - even though it would restrict his ability to sign new trade deals.
But he warned the PM not to go any further by offering Mr Corbyn a permanent customs union to win over Labour support.
He said it would put Britain in an even worse position than our current EU membership because it would make Britain a “commodity” for the EU in its future trade talks.
And last night a report by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research claimed that staying in a customs union would leave each household £800 worse off and reduce the Treasury’s tax revenue by £26 billion.
In a separate speech to the Politeia think tank last night Mr Fox took a swipe at his Remainer colleagues - claiming their “corrosive pessimism damages us at home and abroad”.
FOX BACKS JEZ BID
Asked earlier by The Sun whether he backed Britain staying in a temporary customs union, Mr Fox said: “Effectively we have agreed to remain part of the customs union as part of the implementation as part of the agreement we have.
“My worry would be a permanent state of customs union with the European union.
“There are reasons why being in a permanent customs union with the European union would be bad for business.
“For example the European union would be able to make access to the UK market part of their offer in any trade agreement and we would find ourselves in a unique position in our trading history in that we would be being traded, we would be a commodity in that particular agreement, where the EU would be able to offer access to the UK as part of their offer.
“And then services are a very big part.
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“If we were unable to vary tariffs on goods as part of a negotiation and we wanted to access someone else’s services market to be able to sell more from Britain, if you can’t alter your tariffs on goods then what would you offer? We already have a very open services environment in the UK.
“We would be diminishing the tools we would need to lever greater openness in other markets line service markets.
“It’s a situation that would leave the UK as a rule-taker and in terms with our ability to shape trade policy it would probably leave us in a worse situation than we are today inside the European union. So it’s not a good position for the UK to have, I say in the best understatement.”
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