George Osborne has called for the UK to rejoin the European Union’s custom union to help reverse the economic damage done by Brexit.
The former chancellor, who was part of David Cameron’s cabinet when the infamous referendum was called in 2016, said Britain’s economy had “fallen off a cliff” since Brexit.
Osborne said it was vital that Britain rebuilt links with the EU to help boost the economy.
Speaking to the Independent, Osborne described Brexit as a “mess”, saying: “Britain has basically gone off a cliff. It has had a huge impact on the British economy. It is clearly poorer than it would otherwise be.”
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Whilst acknowledging that rejoining the EU “will be hard anytime soon,” Osborne said that rejoining the customs union would be “quite a simple thing to do.”
“I would rejoin the customs union,” he said. “It’s a quite simple thing to do. That was never part of the Brexit debate. No one knew we were leaving it and it has had a devastating impact on trade.
“The reason we weren’t supposed to be in the customs union – according to the Brexiteers – was these great trade deals we were going to strike with America. That all looks pretty fanciful now.
“People now realise you can’t look at Britain’s growth problem without beginning to think: ‘How can we revive trade with the continent, how can we get investment?’”
Just like his predecessor as prime minister, Andy Burnham has ruled out rejoining the EU or the customs union, pledging to honour Labour’s 2024 manifesto.
Senior Labour figures such as Sadiq Khan have called for Labour to put rejoining the EU in their next manifesto, and Osborne said he could not understand why Britain wouldn’t look to rejoin the customs union.
“If I was Andy Burnham, I don’t see why you wouldn’t rejoin the customs union,” Osborne said.
“It’s a pretty straightforward decision because unlike the single market it does not require you to accept the free movement of people – which is a pretty complicated issue to sell to people in Britain at the moment.”
Of course, it might have been helpful if Osborne had warned his mate David Cameron about all this before he decided to call a referendum on the matter, but hindsight’s a fine thing isn’t it George?