Skip to main content
Labour’s customs union with the EU is a work in progress
EU flag

Chuka Umunna’s and other Labour remainers’ hope that the Labour Party will support staying in the single market and the customs union were decisively dashed by Jeremy Corbyn in his much trailed speech in Coventry this week.

That Labour will honour the result of the EU referendum and leave the single market and the customs union and with it end the freedom of movement is not that new. What is new that will prove to be a giant leap forward for the Labour Party is Corbyn making it clear that remaining in either the single market or the customs union is incompatible with Labour’s radical plans for economic and industrial generation, regional development, state aid and state ownership of public utilities — a crucial understanding of the nature of the EU and its institutions that the majority of Labour members are yet to understand.  

Significant too was his recognition that the huge EU membership fees will after Brexit be spent on our public services.

Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST: Thousands of protesters march aga
Opinion / 24 February 2025
24 February 2025
Lenin’s theory of the weakest link shifted the centre of gravity of the proletarian revolution towards peoples’ struggles in the developing world, contrary to the expectation of Marx and Engels. The effect was to hinder the cause of socialism by decades. Time bring it back to its natural home, argues FAWZI IBRAHIM
Rachel Reeves
Opinion / 14 November 2024
14 November 2024
There is a lot to be said for Labour’s first Budget in 14 years, says FAWZI IBRAHIM, arguing that rebuilding the country’s infrastructure and its industrial base through wealth creation is the antidote to a capitalism in absolute decline
May Day march
Opinion / 17 June 2024
17 June 2024
The reliance on political parties to bring about socialist change in Britain has proved a total failure says FAWZI IBRAHIM. Time for the true representatives of the working class, the trade unions, to take a direct role in asserting their will on the government of the day
NHS renewal
TUC CONGRESS 2023 / 11 September 2023
11 September 2023
We have been fighting things getting worse — what is needed is to fight to get things better, and that requires a radical change in mindset, writes national officer of Rebuild Britain FAWZI IBRAHIM
Similar stories
The Union flag, Saltire and EU flag fly outside the Scottish
Britain / 31 January 2025
31 January 2025
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar during First Minister's Q
Britain / 18 October 2024
18 October 2024
European Union flags wave in the wind as pedestrians walk by
Features / 25 July 2024
25 July 2024
As Starmer hints at closer ties, MARTIN HALL warns of the dangers of creeping alignment and calls for a renewed socialist case for independence from Brussels, especially over the EU’s constraints on economic planning