Corbyn Breaks Brexit Cover, Will Support a Customs Union With EU
Corbyn Breaks Brexit Cover, Will Support a Customs Union With EU
(Bloomberg) -- Jeremy Corbyn’s strategic ambiguity on Brexit is starting to give way. The U.K. opposition leader confirmed his Labour Party will campaign to keep Britain inside a customs union with the European Union, calling it necessary for trade and to prevent a hard border with Ireland.
“We have to have access to European markets,” Corbyn told the EEF manufacturers’ organization. “We have to have a customs union that makes sure we can continue that trade, particularly between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. That is key to it.”
Corbyn has been under pressure from both party members and some of his own shadow cabinet to clarify his Brexit stance, with many calling on him to seek the closest possible ties to the EU. But he’s remained vague on the issue, mindful of not alienating Labour supporters -- especially in Northern England -- who backed Brexit and want full separation from the bloc.
By confirming he’ll campaign for a customs union, Corbyn also drew a clear line between Labour and the Conservative government on Brexit. Prime Minister Theresa May has ruled out both the current union or even “a” customs union with the EU. Her government’s policy looks increasingly like staying closely aligned to EU rules in some cases and breaking completely free in others.
The question vexing both parties has been how to ensure there are no barriers between Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K., and the Republic of Ireland, which is part of the EU. A hard border would undermine the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of violence between unionists and republicans -- though supporters of the most dramatic type of Brexit are now questioning whether the accord still has value.
Corbyn’s comments on Ireland came two days after his foreign affairs spokeswoman, Emily Thornberry, said that the solution to the Irish border issue was “some form of customs union that probably looks very much like the customs union that there is at the moment.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs, Emma Ross-Thomas
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