Letter: ‘Will of the People’ wants Britain to stay in the Customs Union
Paul Smith
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker (R) and British Prime Minister Theresa May. (Photograph: Xinhua/The European Union) - Credit: Xinhua News Agency/PA Images
The will of the people want to stay within the Customs Union with the EU, argues Paul Smith.
On last week's Question Time, Martin Lewis, the undisputed master of figures and logic, made a crucial point on an imaginary referendum about staying in the customs union: 'One would assume most Remainers were in favour of the customs union, and it is not unfair to assume that some Leavers are in favour of the customs union, so on that particular vote, it may well have been a majority for a customs union.'
Let's add this powerful line of reasoning to our armoury of arguments to counter the current Brextremists' claim: that, in the referendum, each and every Leaver wanted out of the
customs union. Plainly, this is wishful thinking.
In addition, many of those Leavers were clear on one point: they had voted out because they wished the EU had remained the basic common market of 1973. Well, it just so happens that the closest to this old common market is the present customs union.
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