Labour vows to ‘fix the holes in Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal’

BIRMINGHAM — A Labour government under Keir Starmer will “fix the holes in Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal,” including on electric vehicles, the party’s trade chief said Tuesday, promising to mend ties with the U.K.’s largest trade partner.

While Labour “will not go back into the EU or rejoin the customs union or restore freedom of movement,” the party’s Shadow Trade Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds told business leaders at the Trade Unlocked conference in Birmingham that it “would work to reset our trading relationships.”

“That has to include fixing holes in the TCA,” he added, referring to the EU-U.K. Trade and Cooperation Agreement.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government is “putting our car manufacturers at risk,” Thomas-Symonds told POLITICO, and “very urgently” needs to address a mechanism in the Brexit deal taking effect at the end of the year that could impose 10 percent tariffs on electric vehicles traded with the EU.  

“We’re in an urgent situation,” Thomas-Symonds said, emphasizing that action could not wait until a scheduled review of the Brexit deal in 2026.

If Labour wins the next election it will work “to tear down barriers” in the Brexit deal by striking an agreement with the EU to align food standards and reduce cumbersome border checks, and securing a deal to make it easier for artists to tour abroad, he said.

It would also secure a deal on mutual recognition of professional qualifications to facilitate cross-border trade in services.

Improving the relationship is “in the national interest,” Thomas-Symonds said, and is why Labour “gave [Sunak] space on the Windsor Framework.”