A new poll from BMG for Change Britain finds that an overwhelming majority of voters – and clear majorities of Remain and Labour voters – say Britain must be completely free to strike its own trade deals after Brexit. 71% of voters agreed that we must be free to negotiate our own trade deals with other countries without involvement of the EU. Which means, Theresa and Jezza, not being part of any form of customs union.

Keir Starmer should take note, as 64% of Labour voters demanded the freedom to strike new trade deals. 60% of Remain voters agreed. Starmer has never managed to explain his unicorn policy of getting the EU to let us join a customs union that also allows us to strike our own free trade deals with other countries. This poll is effectively a resounding rejection of Labour’s customs union policy by Labour voters.

A majority of Remain voters also agreed that Brexit meant taking back control of trade policy, and 58% of Remainers said the referendum result must be respected. Both Number 10 and Starmer should take note – even Remainers want Brexit done properly…

Gisela Stuart and Change Britain have published an interesting Q&A on what “regulatory alignment” means under the definition used in existing EU trade agreements – and it doesn’t look good. They say alignment would make Britain a rule-taker, where we have to follow EU rules but have no say, a worst of all worlds option.

‘Regulatory alignment’ is used by the EU in trade agreements to force other countries to accept EU law. The Ukraine-EU agreement, for example, makes clear that regulatory alignment means ‘Ukraine shall… incorporate the relevant EU acquis into its legislation’ 

The referendum result was a vote for the UK to take back control of its laws. If we have to accept an agreement where our laws continue to be written in Brussels – without elected British representatives having any say over them – this would clearly be incompatible with that result.

Gisela says accepting regulatory alignment would be “completely unacceptable”:

“The referendum result was a vote for real change, a vote to do things differently, and most importantly a vote to take back control. It would therefore be completely unacceptable if we were forced to agree a deal where regulatory alignment saw the UK continue to be subject to rules designed and imposed by Brussels. It would be Single Market membership in all but name.”

Boris, Gove and Brexiteer Tory MPs will agree with Gisela…

Interesting research just out from Change Britain this evening. The OECD has received a grand total of £85,173,454.91 from the EU since 2007:

• In 2007 the OECD received €3,915,338 (£2,680,064.52) from the European Commission
• In 2008 the OECD received €6,915,240 (£5,504,897.55) from the European Commission
• In 2009 the OECD received €5,217,103 (£4,651,542.95) from the European Commission
• In 2010 the OECD received €3,947,916 (£3,384,548.39) from the European Commission
• In 2011 the OECD received €5,796,929 (£5,033,473.45) from the European Commission
• In 2012 the OECD received €1,722,375 (£1,396,329.41) from the European Commission
• In 2013 the OECD received €2,669,613 (£2,265,433.59) from the European Commission
• In 2014 the OECD received €380,249 (£306,784.89) from the European Commission
• In 2015 the OECD received €32,898,142 (£23,884,051.09) from the European Commission
• In 2016 the OECD received €44,752,859 (£36,066,329.07) from the European Commission

Puts their scaremongering today into perspective. 

A new ICM poll for Change Britain confirms Tony Blair’s delusion. 68% of voters want the government to “get on with implementing the result of the referendum”, compared to just 15% who disagree. Even more Remain voters (42%) agree with the statement than disagree (33%). When this question was last polled in December, 26% of Remainers wanted the government to get on with the job compared to 40% who disagreed. The Blairite / Open Britain talk of Leave voters changing their minds is fantasy – it is Remainers who are changing their minds and now want the government to deliver Brexit…

UPDATE: Dominic Raab says:

“These figures show how out of touch Tony Blair is with the mood of the country. Far from wanting to reverse the referendum, the overwhelming majority want the result respected and for politicians to get on with making a success of Brexit.”