Labour MP Alex Ballinger says Brexit deal is not working and seeks closer EU ties

Labour MP Alex Ballinger has said the current Brexit deal is not working and called for an honest conversation about a closer relationship with the EU, while insisting he is not proposing an immediate reversal of Brexit.

In an interview, the Halesowen MP and Foreign Affairs Committee member said businesses, manufacturers, farmers and supermarkets were struggling with the existing arrangements. He argued that the promises made by the Vote Leave campaign in 2016 had not been delivered, and that the rise in migration after the referendum was not what voters had been told to expect.

Ballinger rejected the idea that the only choice was the current deal or full EU membership. He said there were many steps that could improve the relationship, pointing to Norway, Switzerland and Turkey as European countries outside the EU with different arrangements. He also said that if a future government proposed rejoining, a referendum would be needed, but he stressed that was a hypothetical scenario.

The interview pressed him on the costs often attached to rejoining, including adopting the euro, accepting Schengen free movement and paying about £42bn a year to Brussels, according to the Bo group. Ballinger replied that rejoining was not the only option on the table and that the government respected the 2016 vote. He said the debate should focus on the real impact of Brexit on the cost of living, business and migration, rather than a binary choice between staying out and going back in.

He also cited trade friction with the EU. He said a steel dispute had led to tariffs in both directions, affecting firms in Halesowen and across defence, automotive and advanced manufacturing, with costs and jobs at stake. On agriculture, he said farmers did not think the current deal was working and that the government was renegotiating the agricultural deal, with changes due in November intended to help sales of agricultural goods and fish to the EU. He acknowledged research suggesting alignment with Brussels on agri-goods could hit farmers by up to 10 per cent of their takings.

On Russia, Ballinger drew a distinction between attempts to interfere in the 2016 Brexit vote and whether that interference changed the result. He said the Russians had tried to interfere through online channels and trolls, but said British voters had not been influenced by it. He cited a 2020 report and comments by MI5 chief Ken McCallum that no interference affected the outcome of the vote. The exchange came after the Prime Minister had raised Russian interference.

On the economy, Ballinger welcomed an IMF report that upgraded UK GDP figures, saying the country had been resilient. But he said that did not mean Brexit had not damaged trade, migration and living standards. He argued that families could have been thousands of pounds better off a year and that Brexit had damaged both the UK and its closest trading partners.

Earlier in the interview, he defended the government's defence spending, saying it had already invested heavily and delivered the biggest sustained increase since the end of the Cold War, after being pressed on a decision being delayed until next autumn.