Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :

To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of the UK negotiating a permanent UK-EU customs union.

We will not enter a Customs Union because it would not respect the result of the referendum and would not allow for an independent trade policy. The partnership we are seeking with the EU will include an ambitious customs arrangement between the UK and EU, and the trading relationship on goods will be as ambitious as possible. There will be no tariffs, fees, charges, or quotas.

Both the EU and UK have been clear that our future partnership will respect the development of an independent UK trade policy beyond the economic partnership with the EU.

This would not be possible in the customs union.