George Osborne calls for Britain to rejoin the EU customs union

A former chancellor challenges the Brexit settlement

Former British chancellor George Osborne has called for the United Kingdom to rejoin the European Union’s customs union, arguing that closer goods-trade alignment offers the fastest route to improving economic performance. His intervention, reported by the Guardian on September 13, does not represent a government decision or the opening of negotiations. It is nevertheless a direct challenge to one of the government’s stated Brexit boundaries and adds a senior Conservative voice to the debate over how far Britain should go in reducing barriers with its largest trading partner.

Osborne distinguished customs-union participation from rejoining the EU single market. A customs union would generally require a shared external tariff and constrain Britain’s freedom to set an independent goods-tariff policy, while single-market participation raises broader questions about regulatory alignment and movement of people. Osborne’s political argument is that the narrower customs option could be easier to present domestically while still removing important sources of friction for manufacturers and other goods traders.

The government’s current policy remains different

The UK Trade Strategy says the government is not seeking to re-enter either the single market or the customs union. Its chosen course is to improve the existing relationship through the Trade and Cooperation Agreement and additional sector-specific arrangements. The strategy acknowledges that the EU remains Britain’s largest trading market, accounting for 46 percent of UK trade in 2024, and that new barriers have contributed to weaker goods trade and prompted some smaller exporters to withdraw from the European market.

The same official strategy points to narrower remedies already under development, including an agreement intended to ease sanitary and phytosanitary checks on agricultural and food products, cooperation on emissions trading, work on professional qualifications and measures to streamline customs systems. These steps could reduce costs without restoring a common external tariff. Osborne’s proposal therefore presents a materially different policy choice, not merely a restatement of the government’s existing reset with Brussels.

A debate about trade-offs, not an immediate switch

Britain has also continued to deepen trade ties outside Europe. Full UK access to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership took effect on September 1 after Canada completed ratification. The government estimates the agreement will add about £2 billion annually to the economy in the long term. Customs-union membership would require careful examination of how Britain’s independent tariff commitments and newer trade agreements could coexist with EU rules.

What happens next

The immediate test is political. Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government would have to abandon an explicit policy commitment before any customs-union approach could become official, and Brussels would then need to negotiate the terms. Watch for responses from ministers, business groups and EU institutions, as well as any change in the mandate for future UK-EU summits. For now, Osborne has shifted the argument by placing a concrete institutional option on the table, but no accession process has begun and no economic benefit is guaranteed.