#customs-union

#customs-union

If it's in our national interest then we should consider that, we should go that far, he told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg. In a riposte to some cabinet colleagues who have suggested the UK should seek to form a customs union with the EU, Starmer said he did not think that was the answer. We are better looking to the single market rather than the customs union for our further alignment, he said.

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Nick Thomas Symonds, the minister in charge of EU negotiations, was promoted to full cabinet rank. The Welshman, a close ally of Starmer, will be an advocate of a closer relationship with the EU when ministers meet. But, a source close to the prime minister said, he isn't going to bang the cabinet table and say it's customs union or bust. If that happens, it has to come from Keir himself.