It is quite daunting to speak in a debate in which there have been so many knowledgeable and learned speeches, not least from my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (Mr Clarke), who has
been fighting this fight since I was a child. Indeed, I think he was the Paymaster General when I was born. I, like him and like the majority of my constituents, voted to remain in the European Union, so I must admit that, if someone had told me a couple of years ago that I would be standing here setting out why I think it is in Britain’s best interests to leave the customs union, I simply would not have believed them.
However, when we make decisions as a nation, we should stick to them. As the then Prime Minister said in 2016, the vote on 23 June was to be a referendum, not a neverendum—something that the hon. Member for Pontypridd (Owen Smith) would do well to remember. Both campaigns in the referendum were very clear that leaving the European Union would mean leaving both the single market and the customs union. Like my right hon. Friend the Member for East Devon (Sir Hugo Swire), I find the argument that people did not know what they were voting for on 23 June deeply condescending.
Staying in the customs union would prevent us from negotiating trade deals with third countries, which would mean missing out on one of the biggest benefits of Brexit. It is a well-rehearsed argument that 90% of growth is set to take place outside the EU in the near future. The trajectory is clear: in 1980, the EU accounted for 30% of world GDP; by 2023, according to the IMF, that will have fallen to 15%. It would be madness to tie the hands of our country by locking ourselves into a customs union that would mean, in effect, becoming a silent partner in trade deals, such as that with Turkey.