Osborne says UK must rejoin EU customs union to reverse Brexit damage
George Osborne has said Britain’s economy has “fallen off a cliff” since Brexit and argued the clearest way to repair the damage is to rejoin
George Osborne has said Britain’s economy has “fallen off a cliff” since Brexit and argued the clearest way to repair the damage is to rejoin the EU customs union. The former chancellor made the case in a wide-ranging interview, calling the refusal by politicians and business leaders to push harder on rebuilding EU ties a “conspiracy of silence”.
His remarks land in a country still living with the political fallout of the 2016 referendum. Osborne, who lost his job after the vote alongside then-prime minister David Cameron, said the economic case for closer alignment with Brussels was now unavoidable.
‘Only way to recover’
Osborne did not hedge. He said the only route to recovery was re-entry into the Brussels-run customs union. Short and blunt. That position cuts directly against the long-standing Brexit strategy pursued by successive governments, which have treated any move back toward EU structures as politically toxic.
The former Tory chancellor also suggested the debate has been distorted by caution at the top. He said a silence among political, business and union figures was holding back vital efforts to rebuild links with the bloc, even as the economic consequences of leaving continue to shape the UK conversation.
A different view of austerity
Osborne also defended his own record in office. Far from apologising for the austerity programme he oversaw as chancellor from 2010 to 2015, he said he remains proud of it. In his telling, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition now looks more stable in hindsight than the turmoil that followed.
People look back at that government and think “Wow!”, he said, contrasting it with what he described as utter chaos afterwards. The comments point to a broader effort by Osborne to recast both his own legacy and the period before and after Brexit.
Politics, museums and old battles
Now chair of the British Museum, Osborne also used the interview to press his challenge to Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch. He dismissed her insistence that she would never strike an election pact with Nigel Farage, arguing she would do so if it were the only path to power.
Osborne’s comments arrive as he balances a political role in public debate with his responsibilities at one of the UK’s best-known cultural institutions, where he oversees the Bayeux Tapestry exhibition in London. And the Brexit argument is not cooling. It is heating again.
