George Osborne has warned that Britain’s economy has “fallen off a cliff” since Brexit and urged the government to rejoin the European Union’s customs union as the quickest way to restore growth. Speaking to the Independent, the former chancellor said the country is clearly poorer than it would have been without leaving the EU and that rebuilding trade links with the continent is now an urgent priority.
Osborne’s stark assessment
“Brexit has been a mess,” Osborne told the Independent. “Britain has basically gone off a cliff. It has had a huge impact on the British economy. It is clearly poorer than it would otherwise be.” He added that the damage to trade has been devastating and that the notion of striking lucrative deals with the United States to compensate for lost European access now looks “pretty fanciful”.
The case for customs union re‑entry
Osborne argued that rejoining the customs union would be “a quite simple thing to do” because it was never part of the original Brexit debate. “No one knew we were leaving it and it has had a devastating impact on trade,” he said. He contrasted this with rejoining the single market, which would require accepting free movement of people – a politically fraught proposition in the UK at present.
Political hurdles and public sentiment
Acknowledging that a return to EU structures would be difficult a decade after the referendum, Osborne suggested that the economic case is becoming harder to ignore. “People now realise you can’t look at Britain’s growth problem without beginning to think: ‘How can we revive trade with the continent, how can we get investment?’” He pointed to figures like Andy Burnham, arguing that even Labour leaders would see the logic in restoring customs union membership.
What a customs union re‑join could deliver
The former chancellor maintained that restoring customs union ties would immediately ease barriers for British exporters and encourage investment that has stalled since 2016. He warned that without such a step the UK risks remaining “clearly poorer” than it could be, with growth continually hampered by disrupted supply chains and weakened market access.
This article was amended on 13 September 2025. An earlier version said George Osborne resigned as chancellor, when in fact he was sacked by Theresa May.
Why it Matters
Osborne’s intervention highlights a growing consensus among economic policymakers that Brexit’s trade costs are outweighing any purported sovereign gains, and that a targeted re‑engagement with the EU – specifically the customs union – could offer a pragmatic path to revitalising the UK’s stagnating growth without reopening the divisive free‑movement debate.
