Brexit: what ‘no customs union’ means for the UK

Crunch week ahead as Tories finalise Brexit policies

Theresa May PMQ
Theresa May is holding talks with the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier today
(Image credit: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images)

Downing Street says Britain is “categorically” leaving the customs union post-Brexit - a statement viewed alternately as a salve to calm backbenchers over UK-EU ties, or as a red flag for Tory mutineers.

No. 10’s insistence that the UK has ruled out a customs union - essentially a trade agreement where EU members charge the same import tax - follows what Politico’s Jack Blanchard describes as “days of increasingly bitter squabbling within the Tory party”.

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