Corbyn Backing for Customs Union Sets Up Showdown With May

• February 26 2018
• Robert Hutton

Jeremy Corbyn’s decision to back a customs union between the U.K. and the European Union put the opposition on the side of most businesses -- and set up a Parliamentary showdown for Prime Minister Theresa May.

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Jeremy Corbyn’s decision to back a customs union between the U.K. and the European Union put the opposition on the side of most businesses -- and set up a Parliamentary showdown for Prime Minister Theresa May.

Corbyn’s announcement that Labour wants a customs union was welcomed by the Confederation of British Industry. It also got apositive response in Brussels.

But its immediate impact is that it sets up the possibility of a defeat for May in the House of Commons in one of her key pieces of Brexit legislation. If Labour now backs a proposed amendment to the Trade Bill, tabled by Conservative lawmaker Anna Soubry and calling for Britain to stay in a customs union, it stands a chance of passing.

That would leave May stuck between the arithmetic of parliament and the roughly 60 members of parliament in her Tory party who want a hard departure from the EU.

“I appeal to MPs of all parties, prepared to put the people’s interests before ideological fantasies, to join us in supporting the option of a new U.K. customs union with the EU, that would give us a say in future trade deals,” Corbyn said in his speech in Coventry, England.

May has already had one Brexit defeat at the hands of a pro-European Tory and Labour alliance, when they teamed in December to defeat her in Parliament, ensuring lawmakers will have a meaningful vote on the final deal she strikes with the EU.

This could be a harder issue. The prime minister has ruled out any form of customs union with the EU after Brexit, saying that would curtail Britain’s ability to broker new trade deals. If she abandons that stance, she risks alienating another faction within her party: the hardcore Brexiters led by Jacob Rees-Mogg, the bookmakers’ favorite to succeed her.