His comments echo similar arguments from Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, who said last Thursday that Labour should undo “the economic damage done by Brexit”, as well as Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s own chief economic adviser and some senior figures close to No 10.
Starmer pledged not to return to the single market or customs union in Labour’s manifesto last year but is under increasing pressure from MPs and advisers to reconsider in light of dire growth forecasts.
Lammy, asked on the News Agents podcast whether he would like to see Britain rejoin the customs union, said: “That is not currently our policy. That’s not currently where we are.
“But you can see countries like Turkey with a customs union seemingly benefitting and seeing growth in their economy, and again, that’s self-evident.”
He added that his comments were “subject to collective responsibility”, implying that he was not free to diverge from Starmer’s stance on Brexit.
Senior Labour sources expressed frustration at Lammy’s comments. Sources close to him insisted: “He is in the same position as the PM”.
Darren Jones, Starmer’s chief secretary, rebuked Lammy in the House of Commons, stating that Labour’s policy would be announced in Parliament, not “on podcasts”.
Downing Street has abandoned the party’s tactic of avoiding discussion of Brexit, amid concerns that Remain voters have been pushed away from Labour and towards the Liberal Democrats.
The Prime Minister is now openly arguing for a closer relationship with Brussels, saying earlier this week that it would be “utterly reckless” to use Brexit as “a template for our future foreign policy” and pledging a “closer relationship” by the end of Labour’s term in government.
While Starmer claimed that the public was “mis-sold” on “wild promises” about Brexit, he maintained that the customs union was a “red line” that the Government would not cross.
Lammy’s comments came after the Treasury raised concerns that the Budget would not secure economic growth.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) last week downgraded its forecast for four years after 2026 because of lower-than-expected productivity.
The OBR forecasts that leaving the EU will reduce long-run productivity in Britain by 4%, although that figure is disputed by some Brexiteer economists.
Senior figures in the Government have sharpened their focus on Brexit, with Baroness Shafik, Starmer’s top economic adviser, reportedly telling ministers before the Budget that rejoining the customs union would lower business costs and boost exports.
Shafik, a significant figure in No 10, was brought in earlier this year following concerns that Labour had lost focus on the economy.
One senior Labour MP told the Telegraph last month: “There is an active debate going on in Downing Street about whether they should put rejoining the customs union into the next manifesto. It would take us beyond slowly going back into the EU regulatory regime.”
Labour ‘taking us back into EU by back door’
Tim Allan, Downing Street’s director of communications, is the driving force behind the Government’s shift on Brexit and the push to blame the nation’s problems on leaving the EU.
Last week Starmer told colleagues that Nick Thomas-Symonds, his EU relations minister, would be promoted to the Cabinet because of his “important work” on the reset deal.
Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, told the Telegraph that Starmer would “take us into the EU by the back door” and that Lammy “has never got over what happened in 2016”.
“Rejoining the customs union or single market would be a total betrayal of the Brexit vote, sacrificing our ability to determine our own trade policy, handing over customs rules to Brussels bureaucrats and abandoning border control altogether,” she said.
“If Labour are really committed to staying out, Starmer must publicly confirm David Lammy is wrong, or voters will make their own conclusions.”
A spokesman for Lammy said: “Our red lines are clear: there will be no return to the single market or the customs union. We are putting the national interest first, building a closer trading relationship with Europe that is good for jobs, bills, and borders.”
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