George Osborne (Image: Getty)

“It has had a huge impact on the British economy. It is clearly poorer than it would otherwise be.”

Acknowledging that rejoining the EU would be difficult a decade on from the Brexit referendum, Mr Osborne said closer ties with Europe can boost the economy.

“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?’.

But David Bannerman, a prominent Brexiteer and former MEP, hit out at Mr Osborne’s remarks.

“Remember his Referendum threat of £35bn tax rises from an Emergency Budget if Brexit succeeded – never necessary. He is said to want to send the Marbles to Greece.”

The immediate recession predicted in the Treasury forecasts ordered by Mr Osborne – dubbed “project fear” by the Leave campaign – did not happen.

Meanwhile, the impact from the Covid pandemic, wars in Ukraine and Iran, and Donald Trump’s trade battles have had an unprecedented impact on the UK economy, as well as many others around the world.

But our economy has spluttered in the two years since Labour came to power in 2024.

Brexiteer fury over calls to rejoin the EU’s customs union

Calls for Britain to rejoin the European Union’s customs union have reignited one of the most divisive arguments of the Brexit era, with former Conservative chancellor George Osborne arguing that closer economic integration with Brussels could help address the damage he believes Brexit has caused.

Osborne, a prominent supporter of remaining in the EU during the 2016 referendum, made the intervention in an interview with The Independent. He argued that Britain’s economy had suffered significantly since Brexit and said rejoining the EU customs union would be a relatively straightforward way to rebuild trade links with European neighbours.

The proposal immediately touches one of the central questions left unresolved by Britain’s departure from the EU: how closely should the UK remain economically connected to its largest nearby trading partner?

For supporters of Brexit, the answer has traditionally been that Britain should maintain the freedom to set its own trade policy and negotiate agreements independently. For advocates of closer European integration, the focus is instead on reducing barriers to trade with the EU.

The latest intervention has therefore reopened an argument that many politicians had hoped to move beyond.

Osborne’s argument

Osborne’s case is straightforward. He believes that leaving the EU customs union increased barriers to trade and that reversing part of that decision could improve Britain’s economic relationship with Europe.

Speaking to The Independent, he described Brexit as a “mess” and argued that Britain was poorer than it otherwise would have been. He said it would be difficult for the UK to rejoin the EU itself in the near future, but maintained that returning to the customs union could be a more immediate step.

The former chancellor also argued that the political debate surrounding Brexit had become too cautious, claiming that politicians, business leaders and trade unions had been reluctant to speak openly about rebuilding Britain’s relationship with the EU.

His comments represent Osborne’s assessment rather than an established consensus. The economic effects of Brexit remain the subject of continuing debate, with different studies measuring different effects over different periods and using different assumptions.

Nevertheless, the customs union question has returned to political discussion at a time when Britain is already seeking closer cooperation with the EU in several areas.

Why the customs union matters

A customs union is different from EU membership and also different from membership of the single market.

The EU customs union operates with a common external tariff and removes customs duties between participating members for goods covered by the arrangement. The EU says the customs union is central to the functioning of its single market and is designed to facilitate trade while applying common customs rules.

Britain left the EU customs union at the end of the Brexit transition period in December 2020.

Rejoining would therefore represent a significant change to the current trading relationship.

It would not, by itself, return Britain to the EU or automatically restore freedom of movement. Nor would it necessarily amount to rejoining the single market.

However, it could affect Britain’s ability to negotiate independent trade agreements because members of a customs union generally operate within a common external tariff and common trade framework.

That distinction is at the heart of the political disagreement.

Why Brexiteers object

For Brexit supporters, the customs union was closely connected to the promise of an independent British trade policy.

One of the arguments made during and after the referendum was that leaving the EU would allow Britain to negotiate its own agreements with countries around the world rather than participating in a common EU trade policy.

Osborne acknowledged this argument in his interview but questioned whether the anticipated benefits had materialised as expected. He pointed specifically to the expectation among Brexit supporters that Britain would be able to strike major new trade agreements, including with the United States.

Brexiteers, however, have continued to argue that sovereignty over trade policy is an important consequence of leaving the EU framework.

For them, rejoining the customs union would not simply be a technical adjustment to customs procedures. It would represent a partial reversal of one of the defining economic choices made during Brexit.

That is why calls for a customs union can generate such strong reactions even when advocates present the proposal primarily as an economic measure.

Labour faces its own dilemma

The issue also presents difficulties for Labour.

The government has pursued closer relations with the EU in areas such as trade, security and cooperation while maintaining political commitments against rejoining the EU, the single market or customs union.

Recent reporting indicates that Prime Minister Andy Burnham has maintained those commitments despite growing pressure for a deeper relationship with Brussels.

That creates a distinction between improving the existing Brexit agreement and reversing Brexit-related arrangements.

The government can seek fewer trade barriers, greater regulatory cooperation or improved arrangements for particular sectors without necessarily supporting customs-union membership.

Indeed, the debate over Britain’s future relationship with Europe now contains several different proposals, ranging from relatively limited changes to the existing agreement to eventual EU re-entry.

They should not be treated as interchangeable.

Growing debate over Brexit’s economic legacy

The customs-union debate comes amid broader discussion about the economic consequences of Brexit.

The Independent recently reported research from Logistics UK suggesting that UK goods export volumes have fallen compared with 2019, while a survey cited by the newspaper found substantial numbers of businesses reporting negative effects from Brexit.

Such figures are being used by supporters of closer EU integration to argue that Britain should reduce trade barriers.

But economic comparisons surrounding Brexit are complicated.

The period since the referendum has included the Covid-19 pandemic, major energy-price shocks, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, changes in global supply chains and wider geopolitical disruption. Separating the effect of Brexit from these other developments remains an important part of any serious economic assessment.

This is why claims about the precise economic cost or benefit of Brexit can vary considerably depending on the methodology being used.

The EU has changed too

Another consideration is that the EU itself is not standing still.

In September 2026, the EU Council gave final approval to a major reform of the bloc’s customs framework. The changes include a new EU customs authority, a customs data hub and new arrangements intended to simplify procedures for trusted traders. The EU says the reforms are designed to improve efficiency, strengthen security and manage increasing trade flows.

This means that any future British debate about customs cooperation would take place with an EU customs system that has itself evolved since Britain left.

A future UK-EU customs arrangement would therefore have to be negotiated in the context of today’s EU rather than the institution Britain left in 2020.

A political fault line that has never disappeared

The reaction to Osborne’s comments demonstrates why Brexit remains politically sensitive a decade after the referendum.

To supporters of closer European integration, the customs union is primarily a question of trade efficiency and reducing barriers.

To many Brexit supporters, however, it represents something larger: the question of whether Britain should retain the independent economic and regulatory powers that Brexit was intended to provide.

The disagreement is therefore not simply about customs declarations or tariffs. It is about competing ideas of Britain’s relationship with Europe and the balance between economic integration and national policy autonomy.

The debate has also broadened beyond the traditional Conservative-versus-Labour divide. Figures from different political backgrounds have expressed support for closer European ties, while Reform UK and other Brexit-supporting voices continue to oppose moves that would substantially reverse Brexit.

What happens next?

There is currently no indication that Britain is formally preparing to rejoin the EU customs union as government policy.

Osborne’s intervention is instead part of a broader political debate about what Britain’s relationship with Europe should look like ten years after the referendum.

The government faces competing pressures: businesses seeking fewer trade barriers, politicians calling for closer cooperation with Europe, and voters and political movements that continue to place importance on the independence gained through Brexit.

Whether those pressures eventually produce a major change will depend on future political decisions and negotiations with the EU.

For now, the renewed customs-union debate demonstrates that Brexit has not disappeared from British politics. The arguments that divided the country in 2016 have evolved, but the fundamental question remains: how closely should Britain align itself with the European Union while remaining outside it?

That question is likely to remain politically significant for years to come.

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