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<\/p>\nStarmer’s European affairs minister also ruled out a customs union with the EU<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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There is \u201cno appetite\u201d to reopen debates about rejoining the European Union, according to the minister in charge of resetting the relationship between Europe and the UK.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Ever since Labour returned to power in 2024, Keir Starmer\u2019s government has spoken of realigning with the EU and rebuilding the relationship.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Over the last few months, senior figures in Starmer\u2019s government \u2013\u00a0including the PM himself\u00a0\u2013 have also openly criticised Brexit and the damage it has done to the British economy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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However, cold water seems to have been poured on such hopes by the minister tasked with resetting the UK\u2019s relationship with the EU.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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European affairs minister rules out customs union<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Speaking to the\u00a0Independent, European affairs minister Nick Thomas-Symonds ruled out the possibility of a customs union with the EU.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Although he echoed calls for closer alignment with the EU, the Labour MP ruled out any sort of deal that would lead to a customs union between the UK and the EU.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Thomas-Symonds claimed promises of a customs union would be similar to the infamous Vote Leave bus pledge of NHS funding.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cWe won\u2019t have a customs union. We will never go back to the days of making undeliverable promises on the side of red buses,\u201d he told the\u00a0Independent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The minister also said he did not believe the UK would ever rejoin the EU, claiming there is \u201cno appetite\u201d for such conversations or debate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cI don\u2019t see us returning to debates of the past,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cWhat we\u2019ve always been about, in this, is looking forward. I get a sense, because I\u2019m talking to people up and down the country on a weekly basis, that there is support for the closer relationship that we have already built and are building. And I think there is no appetite to reopen the debate.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Closer alignment with EU still the goal for Labour<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Speaking to the Times, Reeves said leaving the EU has had a negative effect on growth and supermarket pricing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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She also ruled out the possibility of another referendum on EU membership though, saying the \u201cship has already sailed\u201d on this.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Both Reeves and Thomas-Symonds spoke of closer alignment with the EU though and improving trading relations with the bloc.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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On Tuesday, the chancellor will be \u201cmaking the positive case\u201d for closer alignment between Britain and the EU when she gives a speech to London\u2019s top business brass.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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#appetite #reopen #membership #debate #Starmers #top #negotiator<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Starmer’s European affairs minister also ruled out a customs union with the EU There is \u201cno appetite\u201d to reopen debates about rejoining the European Union, according to the minister in charge of resetting the relationship between Europe and the UK. Ever since Labour returned to power in 2024, Keir Starmer\u2019s government has spoken of realigning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4275,1432,260,3470,159,4276,4277,923,18,2950,898,772,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-4233","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured","8":"tag-appetite","9":"tag-brexit","10":"tag-debate","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-labour","13":"tag-membership","14":"tag-negotiator","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-reopen","18":"tag-starmer","19":"tag-starmers","20":"tag-top"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}