Now Theresa May’s talks with Jeremy Corbyn have collapsed, it’s unclear whether she’ll still ask MPs what sort of customs deal they want if we quit the EU. But a leaked document setting out the plan she was hoping to put to Parliament contains four proposals, all of them unicorns.
The prime minister was hoping to kick off the so-called “indicative” votes next week. After the talks with Labour broke down today, May said she would “consider” whether to proceed with the plan.
There were already multiple problems with this idea, also sometimes branded “definitive” votes, as explained by Luke Lythgoe earlier this week. But the new leak to ITV reveals a new problem: that all the ideas on customs are fantasies.
1. “A customs arrangement that combines the benefits of a customs union – no tariffs, fees, charges or quantitative restrictions – plus no checks on rules of origin when goods move between the UK and the EU with the ability for the UK to determine its own external trade policy and international development policy.”
It is misleading to say we can “determine” our own trade policy if we follow the EU’s tariffs and won’t accept any checks on the origin of goods going from the UK to the EU. Our freedom to cut our own trade deals with the rest of the world will be so severely limited that we won’t be able to do many significant ones.
2. “A comprehensive customs union covering both goods and services, including a UK say in EU trade policy, at least until alternative arrangements that maintain as close to frictionless trade as possible with the EU and no hard border on the island of Ireland have been agreed.”
It’s a free world. So anybody is free to “say” whatever they like about the EU’s trade policies. But that’s totally different from having a vote – something we get now as a result of sitting at the EU’s top table. The EU won’t give us a meaningful say on its trade policy if we quit the bloc. To suggest otherwise – as Labour has been doing – is misleading. It’s worrying that the government is repeating this language.
3. “A customs union covering goods, including a say in relevant EU trade policy, at least until the next election.”
4. “A comprehensive customs union covering both goods and services including a UK say in EU trade policy.”
Both these options suffer from the same problem as the second one. It’s fantasy to suggest that we can have a vote on the EU’s trade policies if we are quitting the club.
It’s now nearly three years since the referendum. The economy is suffering death by a thousand cuts. Our politicians can’t fix the country’s real problems because they are obsessed by Brexit. The public is bored to tears by the whole bloody business. And our government still won’t be honest about our options. What a disgrace.
