Peter Kyle

Well, the point I made yesterday was the debate is good.

And the fact is that the customs union exists.

The question that was put to me then was, is it OK that people in the Labour Party talk about the customs union?

Now, the customs union exists.

But of course, I'm very clear about this.

It is not my intention that we join the customs union.

My focus is absolutely on short term immediate growth in the UK.

We have invested an enormous amount into medium to long term growth measures.

We're building 1.5 million homes.

We're expanding four airports with new runways in the UK, four new reservoirs, £42 billion worth of investment into rail in the next decade in the north of England.

All of these things are highly consequential when it comes to growth into the medium to long term.

My focus is on what it would take to get growth into the economy in the near term, in the immediate term.

what will move the needle in this year.

So the customs union is not on my radar or this government's radar for that.

No, we're not open to joining the customs union.

And as I've said,

It took it took Turkey 20 years to join the customs union.

It took four years for the UK to leave the customs union.

And we need to focus on improving measures in the immediate term.

There is a lot of challenge with growth.