Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to use a summit with the EU this summer to further unwind Brexit, arguing that Britain must move closer to the single market, even at the expense of accepting Brussels’ rules.
The prime minister said Britain would use the summit, expected in May, to explore new ways to tear down more Brexit trade barriers to boost growth and cut prices in shops.
But speaking during a visit to China, he again rejected calls by senior Labour figures to form a new customs union with the EU, arguing it would mean reversing trade deals he had signed with the US, India and South Korea.
Wes Streeting, health secretary and a potential Labour leadership rival, is among those to have talked about the benefits of a customs union, as has David Lammy, deputy prime minister, and Paul Nowak, head of the Trades Union Congress.
Starmer’s comments came ahead of a meeting on February 2, between British ministers and Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission’s UK negotiator, to pave the way for the summit.
Both sides hope to finalise a so-called veterinary deal to remove barriers to trade in food and agricultural products by the time of the summit, along with the details of a new youth mobility scheme.
Work on those deals was launched last year at the first post-Brexit UK/EU summit, but Starmer said he wanted to go further.
“I think we should not just follow through on what we’ve already agreed,” he said. “I think the relationship with the EU and every summit should be iterative. We should be seeking to go further. And I think there are other areas in the single market where we should look to see whether we can’t make more progress.
“That will depend on our discussions and what we think is in our national interest. And actually I think the place to look is the single market, rather than the customs union, which, because of the reasons I’ve said, doesn’t now serve our purpose very well.”
Starmer declined to say which areas of trade might benefit from closer alignment with the single market, although the EU/UK deal on food and agriculture is seen as a template for further such agreements.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has talked about closer alignment of rules in the chemicals sector while other ministers have said the principle could be extended to other “established industries” like the automotive sector.
The Conservatives and Reform UK have attacked that approach, arguing that accepting EU rules is a surrender of sovereignty, which they say was one of the biggest benefits of the 2016 vote to leave the EU.
Starmer said last month that he was prepared to pay that price if it helped to cut the cost of living. “We will have to be grown-up about that — to accept that this will require trade-offs,” he told MPs.
The prime minister is keen to close down Labour talk about forming a new customs union with the EU. “We’ve already done trade deals, which would then have to be unpicked,” Starmer told journalists on his China visit.
No firm date for an EU/UK summit has been set, but Brussels officials said that Starmer is pushing for May as he seeks to prove that his European “reset” is paying dividends.
EU capitals are already informally discussing potential areas where the UK can participate more in the single market ahead of the planned summit, with transatlantic tensions driving more ambitious thinking.
“I would say it is clear that the way things are changing with our friends across the Atlantic that there is much more openness about how we can co-operate with the UK on trade and economic issues,” said a senior EU diplomat involved in the discussions.
While traditional divisions inside the 27-member bloc regarding UK relations still exist in some areas, opposition to closer engagement has eased in recent months, the diplomat added.
The planned May summit would come shortly after “midterm” elections to the Scottish and Welsh parliaments and English councils, at which Starmer’s Labour Party is expected to get a battering.
Labour MPs believe Starmer could face a leadership challenge in the immediate aftermath of an electoral meltdown, with Streeting seen as his biggest threat, even as the summit comes into view.
The prime minister’s allies admit to being “frustrated” to see the health secretary “straying out of his lane” and presenting himself as being more ambitious than Starmer in his desire to rebuild ties with the EU.