Sir Keir Starmer has said closer alignment with the EU single market would be preferable to joining a customs union, in his clearest indication yet that the government wants to deepen economic ties with Brussels while stopping short of rejoining existing EU structures.
The prime minister said the UK should consider “even closer alignment” with the single market if it serves the national interest. “If it’s in our national interest … then we should consider that, we should go that far,” he told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.
Pushing back against suggestions from some cabinet colleagues that the UK should pursue a customs union with the EU, Starmer said he did not believe that approach was the right one. “We are better looking to the single market rather than the customs union for our further alignment,” he said.
Senior figures including health secretary Wes Streeting and justice secretary David Lammy have previously suggested a customs union could bring economic benefits, as has TUC general secretary Paul Nowak. However, Starmer’s comments suggest the government is instead looking at sector-by-sector alignment beyond the food and drink agreement reached with the EU in May.
The remarks prompted an angry response from Reform UK and the Conservatives. Starmer said circumstances had changed since the Brexit debate, pointing to new trade deals signed under Labour. “I argued for a customs union for many years with the EU, but a lot of water has now gone under the bridge,” he said.
“I do understand why people are saying: ‘Wouldn’t it be better to go to the customs union?’ I actually think that now we’ve done deals with the US which are in our national interest, now we’ve done deals with India which are in our national interest, we are better looking to the single market rather than the customs union for our further alignment.”
Progress on recently announced UK-EU agreements has been slow, with negotiations continuing over a new sanitary and phytosanitary deal on food and drink and a proposed youth mobility scheme. Talks remain contentious, and the government has also pulled back from plans to join a major EU defence fund.
Any further alignment with the EU is likely to prompt demands from Brussels over migration. Starmer said there would be no return to full freedom of movement, but defended the youth mobility proposal. “We are looking at a youth mobility scheme which will be for young people to travel, to work, to enjoy themselves in different European countries, to have that experience,” he said.
The shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel described the comments as a “Brexit betrayal”, claiming Starmer was “surrendering our freedom to cut regulation and strike our own trade deals”. Nigel Farage said the remarks were “a breach of good faith with Labour voters” and criticised proposed cooperation on energy markets, arguing it would tie the UK to “crazy EU net zero policies and carbon taxes”.
A Labour source said the row highlighted a clear dividing line with Reform, arguing that Farage opposed closer EU ties because he did not want it to be easier for British businesses or for household bills to fall.
Starmer has previously signalled his desire to strengthen relations with the EU. In November, Nick Thomas-Symonds was promoted to the cabinet, while some advisers, including economist Minouche Shafik, have argued internally that a customs union could boost growth.
However, the prime minister has remained cautious, pointing to trade agreements with India and an economic deal with the US as evidence of his strategy. Despite growing pressure from Labour backbenchers, including MPs who supported a Liberal Democrat motion on a customs union last month, Starmer warned that internal division would risk repeating the chaos of recent Conservative leadership battles.
“What I don’t think will help us is if a Labour government turns back to the chaos of the last Tory government. That would gift Nigel Farage,” he said.
Starmer said the next general election would be decisive, adding, “I was elected on a five-year mandate to change this country. I intend to deliver on that mandate. I will be judged at the next general election on whether we have brought about the change that people voted for.”
He said the contest would be “unlike any election we’ve seen in this country for a very, very long time”, framing it as a choice between Labour and what he described as a “very rightwing proposition” from Reform.
