Shadow chancellor Stride: ‘there must be no suggestion of going back into single market or customs union’
Shadow chancellor Mel Stride has said that there must be no suggestion of the UK going back into the EU single market or customs union, but said the Labour government should be doing everything to “facilitate trade” with what he said was “our biggest trading partner.”
Speaking on Sky News this morning in the wake of weak GDP figures, Stride was highly critical of what he said was Labour talking down the economy, and suggested there were opportunities to grow trade elsewhere.
Asked about chancellor Rachel Reeves and governor of the Bank of England mentioning Brexit as a factor holding back economic growth, Stride told viewers:
I think that the EU is our biggest trading partner, so of course, anything that we can do to facilitate trade between ourselves, that still respects the result of the British people in 2016 is to be welcomed. So there must be no suggestion of going back into the single market or the customs union.
Stride then said that trade arrangements about phytosanitary and veterinary issues “were important”. He continued:
But we also need to look also need to look more broadly across the globe.
As global Britain, we as a government bought in 72 different free trade agreements, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a part of the world and a collection of countries that collectively are a bigger market than the EU and growing faster than the EU.
And of course, there will be opportunities potentially with the new administration in America to look at a US-UK trade deal as well.
So we’ve got to look beyond Europe as well as maximising the opportunities of that relationship [with the EU].
Key events
Summary of the day so far …
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Shadow chancellor Mel Stride has said that there must be no suggestion of the UK going back into the EU single market or customs union, but said the Labour government should be doing everything to “facilitate trade” with what he said was “our biggest trading partner”
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The shadow chancellor was speaking in the wake of weak GDP figures of just 0.1% growth, and comments by Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey on Thursday that Brexit had been a “weight” on the economy
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Chancellor Rachel Reeves said she was “not satisfied” with the GDP figures, as “improving economic growth is at the heart of everything I am seeking to achieve”. Labour MP Liam Byrne said that the country was in a difficult position and that bold measures from government would be needed
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Ed Davey has called on Labour to change their mind on extending the bus fare price cap in England for another 12 months but raising the maximum price to £3. The Lib Dem leader said “The fare cap increase is like a bus tax for people across the country, impacting bus users and commuters already struggling to make ends meet”
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The Liberal Democrats have claimed to have tapped into a “growing rural revolt” over inheritance tax on farms, winning a council seat from Labour in Chipping Norton
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Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has made some rather more conciliatory comments about incoming US president Donald Trump than his previous statements, saying “Donald Trump has won the election; he’s going to be the president in January. And I wish him well”. The pair have enjoyed a long feud
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Leading Tories Robert Jenrick and Oliver Dowden were on the committee that backed plans for the “rushed and misjudged” £15m purchase of an asbestos-ridden site for asylum accommodation, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has disclosed
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Downing Street has apologised to British Hindus after it served meat and alcohol at its annual Diwali celebration
It is Friday which means lots of MPs are back in their constituencies and posting to social media about what they are doing there. Labour’s Mark Tami has been at the Aberduna nature reserve in north Wales, Conservative James Cartlidge has been at Ipswich High school, Liberal Democrat Christine Jardine has been at the opening of Corstorphine post office in Edinburgh, and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has posted to say “I would like all my haters to know that I am once again in Clacton living my best life.”
The people at Election Maps have aggregated the results of council byelections since the general election, and found that Labour have lost 22 seats over that time, with the main beneficiaries being the Tories.
They give the headline figures among the four largest parties in the Commons as:
Over the time period the Greens have won eight byelections, including two gains, Reform UK have made three gains, and Plaid Cymru have held two seats.
They’ve produced a diagram giving the numbers a visual representation.
The SNP has said in a social media post that it agrees with Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England, about the need to “rebuild relations with the EU.”
“The best way to guarantee Scotland’s membership of the EU is with independence,” the party says in its post, saying “it is time to return to the single market and customs union.”
Bailey made the comments last night, saying Brexit had “weighed” on the economy.
Heather Stewart
Heather Stewart, our economics editor, has this explainer on whether Labour can build closer EU trade ties and if that would increase growth:
The Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, used his Mansion House speech on Thursday to say Brexit had undermined the UK’s economy and to urge the government to improve relations with the EU, for the sake of growth.
Labour’s prospectus for this year’s general election made a modest set of proposals for making the trade and cooperation agreement (TCA), struck by Boris Johnson, work better.
These include trying to strike a sanitary and phytosanitary agreement (SPS) that could alleviate the need for veterinary checks of products such as food at the border; negotiating mutual recognition of professional standards, so that UK lawyers, architects etc could practise freely in the EU; and making it easier for musicians to tour the continent.
These modest aims mesh with the EU’s determination not to reopen the TCA, as well as the fact that most EU countries have more pressing issues on their minds than bringing the UK back into the fold.
Some sectors could benefit significantly from reduced friction at the border. However, the limited nature of the plans means most economists believe any upside in terms of GDP growth is likely to be limited.
Read more from Heather Stewart here: Could Labour build closer EU trade ties and would this increase growth?
I mentioned earlier that new Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch was today pushing messaging over farming and inheritance tax, and the Liberal Democrats are too, saying that they are tapping into a “growing rural revolt”.
Speaking after Liberal Democrats last night won a council seat from Labour in Chipping Norton with what they described as a huge swing, the party said:
This stunning win is another sign of the growing rural revolt over the government’s family farm tax. It is clear that in rural communities like these people are turning to the Liberal Democrats, not the tarnished Conservatives, as the party best placed to hold the government to account.
Labour were actually pushed into third place in the seat, with the Lib Dems on 31.3% (+24.6), the Tories on 29.7% (+9.0) and Labour on 27.2% (-34.2). The Green party also increased their vote share, ending up on 11.8% (+0.5).
In Scotland, Labour leader Anas Sarwar has also been boasting of three Labour election wins at council level, saying “it’s clear that Scots want a new direction and an end to SNP incompetence.”
In another bit of council news, Reform UK’s chief whip Lee Anderson has welcomed the defection of an Ashfield district councillor from the Tories.
Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has made some rather more concilliatory comments about incoming US president Donald Trump than his previous statements.
Speaking on LBC, Khan said:
Firstly it’s really important I say this because I abide by the rules of the game. Donald Trump has won the election; he’s going to be the president in January. And I wish him well, I congratulate him on winning the election.
There was though a little sting in the tail. Khan continued:
Clearly, we know from his record when he was president between 2016 and 2020 and also some of the things he’s campaigned on, there are anxieties that Londoners have, which my job as the mayor is to articulate those.
I think the three things that even Donald Trump supporters would agree with is his policies are protectionist, nativist, and unilateralist. I think that poses problems not just for our great country, and the world, but also for London.
Khan added “Now JD Vance, Elon Musk and others may have changed their mind about Trump. I haven’t. But I’m giving the president-elect the benefit of the doubt and let’s hope, fingers crossed, this president, during this term, is different from the last one.”
In 2015 Khan, before Trump became president, had said he hoped that the Republican candidate would lose the election “badly”. In June 2019 Trump called the London mayor “a stone cold loser” and “very dumb”. There were more than a few exchanges of words in between, as evidence by this timeline from a few years ago.
The new Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch is continuing to campaign on farming and tax issues this morning. Posting some pictures of herself visiting a farm with Mid Buckinghamshire MP Greg Smith yesterday, she wrote:
The message from farmers I’ve met is clear: Labour’s family farm tax is going to cripple the industry. If we lose our family farms, we won’t be getting them back. I’m clear that we oppose these taxes, and we would reverse them.
When making tax changes to farming, chancellor Rachel Reeves said 72% of farms would be unaffected. The NFU has argued with the data though, and said that cash-poor, medium-sized family farms will be unaffordably hit by changes announced in the budget.
In the ONS trade bulletin this morning, it noted that as part of the weak GDP figures, export in goods declined. It wrote:
Total exports of goods fell by £3.4bn (10.6%) in September 2024. Exports to non-EU countries decreased by £1.8bn (10.9%) and exports to the EU decreased by £1.6bn (10.3%).
It added that “exports to the EU were £1.1bn lower than exports to non-EU countries.”
Shadow chancellor Stride: ‘there must be no suggestion of going back into single market or customs union’
Shadow chancellor Mel Stride has said that there must be no suggestion of the UK going back into the EU single market or customs union, but said the Labour government should be doing everything to “facilitate trade” with what he said was “our biggest trading partner.”
Speaking on Sky News this morning in the wake of weak GDP figures, Stride was highly critical of what he said was Labour talking down the economy, and suggested there were opportunities to grow trade elsewhere.
Asked about chancellor Rachel Reeves and governor of the Bank of England mentioning Brexit as a factor holding back economic growth, Stride told viewers:
I think that the EU is our biggest trading partner, so of course, anything that we can do to facilitate trade between ourselves, that still respects the result of the British people in 2016 is to be welcomed. So there must be no suggestion of going back into the single market or the customs union.
Stride then said that trade arrangements about phytosanitary and veterinary issues “were important”. He continued:
But we also need to look also need to look more broadly across the globe.
As global Britain, we as a government bought in 72 different free trade agreements, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a part of the world and a collection of countries that collectively are a bigger market than the EU and growing faster than the EU.
And of course, there will be opportunities potentially with the new administration in America to look at a US-UK trade deal as well.
So we’ve got to look beyond Europe as well as maximising the opportunities of that relationship [with the EU].
Shadow chancellor Mel Stride has just posted a clip of his appearance on Sky News this morning to social media, adding this message:
Labour now own growth. We left the fastest growth in [the] G7. Labour talked down the economy. Now we see the results. And OBR forecasts Labour’s budget to mean lower future growth than under us. We need a resilient economy to face the challenges ahead. Where’s their plan for that?
Stride is correct to say that in the first two quarters of the year there was stronger growth in GDP, at 0.7% in Q1 and 0.5% in Q2, but that followed on from two consecutive quarters under Rishi Sunak’s premiership when the economy contracted, by -0.1% in Q3 2023, and by -0.3% in Q4.
Labour MP Liam Byrne earlier said that the country was in a difficult position and that bold measures from government would be needed.
The MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North who chairs parliament’s Business and Trade committee, said on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme:
We need to raise the investment rate in the British economy. We have not been investing enough in infrastructure and skills and innovation for a long period of time.
I’m afraid that catches up with you, especially if you’re now in this new world where so much of our trade is wrapped in red tape.
We’re in quite a difficult position at the moment and we’re going to need some pretty bold and pretty quick measures from our government.
The MP for Clacton, Nigel Farage, has also chipped in his tuppence on social media after the ONS revealed weak GDP growth figures, and the governer of the Bank of England called for a rebuild of relations with the EU on Thursday evening.
The Reform UK leader posted to social media to say “The governor of the Bank of England, the man who didn’t see inflation coming, wants closer ties to the EU. The same old failed establishment are still in charge and the country gets poorer.”
Speaking at the Mansion House dinner in the City of London on Thursday evening, the Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey said he took no position on Brexit “per se”, but added: “I do have to point out consequences.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said she is “not satisfied” with the 0.1% growth revealed by today’s GSP figures. Shadow chancellor Mel Stride called them “extremely disappointing.”
Kit Malthouse, Conservative MP for North West Hampshire, has said it is “gaslighting” to blame Brexit for low growth in the UK economy.
Posting to social media, he described the weak GDP figures as “the Reeves effect,” saying:
Anyone in touch with the real economy could tell you this was coming. Reeves manipulation in advance of the budget had a huge impact. Now watch the gaslighting that it’s because of Brexit, despite German economy tanking and France struggling to sell its debt.
On Thursday night Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey said he took no position on Brexit “per se”, but that it had “weighed” on the economy, pointing out in particular the impact of Brexit on the UK’s trade in goods.
My colleague Graeme Wearden on our business live blog had this comparison of G7 economies earlier:
Labour MP Josh MacAlister was on the Today programme this morning, not talking about the GDP figures, but instead about his plans for a private member’s bill on online safety for children.
PA Media reports the proposal is meant to tackle “addictive by-design features” on social media and smartphones, in the wake of Australia pressing ahead with a social media ban for under-16s.
Elected in July as MP for Whitehaven and Workington, he told listeners:
The fact that (the Australian government) is proposing it speaks to something that’s happening all around the world, which is governments waking up to concerns that parents, teachers, and actually children themselves have of the effect of excess screen time, doom-scrolling, and the fact that it’s displacing a huge amount of time that kids used to spend in real life interacting with people.
I want us to raise the age at which a child is able to give their permission for data-sharing from 13 to 16.
That would have the effect of making it much harder for tech companies to use children’s data to feed algorithms that then feed stuff back to children that is very addictive.
