Closer EU ties the ‘biggest prize’ for Britain, says Rachel Reeves

The chancellor said greater integration with the EU “is a political argument Labour can win” but critics have accused Ms Reeves of attempting to “betray” the Brexit vote.

Speaking at the London School of Economics, Ms Reeves said: “The biggest prize is clearly with the EU. The truth is, economic gravity is reality. Almost half of our trade is with the European Union. We trade almost as much with the EU as the whole of the rest of the world combined.

“There are three big trading blocs in the world — there’s the US, there’s China and there is Europe. We want to make Europe as strong as possible, and that means not putting up the drawbridge.”

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Since coming to power, Labour has always maintained that it would not bring Britain back into the EU.

However, Sir Keir Starmer has called for stronger ties with the bloc and many Labour voters have called for a fresh debate to be had on Britain’s relationship with the EU.

Ms Reeves added: “My government, Keir’s government, is up for that, and we are keen to go through at a sectoral level what areas we think we could have deeper alignment in.

“Some of that could be unilateral, and some of it could be negotiated, but there are big opportunities.”

This marks a tone shift from the Chancellor, who previously called on Cabinet ministers to “stop floating” the idea of re-entering the customs union.

The jab was clearly aimed at Wes Streeting, who called for a closer trading relationship with the bloc.

“The best way for us to get more growth into our economy is a deeper trading relationship with the EU,” he previously said.

“The reason why leaving the EU hit us so hard as a country is because of the enormous economic benefits that came with being in the single market and the customs union.

“This is a country and a government that wants a closer trading relationship with Europe.”