Osborne claims Britain has 'fallen off a cliff' since leaving Europe

 George Osborne has said Britain should rejoin the EU customs union, claiming that the country has “gone off a cliff” since Brexit.

The former Tory chancellor, who resigned hours after Lord Cameron following the referendum, said rejoining the trading bloc would be a “straightforward decision” for Andy Burnham.

He told The Independent: “Britain has basically gone off a cliff. It has had a huge impact on the British economy. It is clearly poorer than it would otherwise be.”

His suggested solution was to rejoin the customs union. “It’s a quite simple thing to do. That was never part of the Brexit debate.

“No one knew we were leaving it and it has had a devastating impact on trade,” he said.

He added that Brexiteers had backed leaving the customs union because of “these great trade deals we were going to strike with America”, which he said “looks pretty fanciful now”.

The former chancellor said: “If I was Andy Burnham, I don’t see why you wouldn’t rejoin the customs union.

“It’s a pretty straightforward decision because unlike the single market, it does not require you to accept the free movement of people – which is a pretty complicated issue to sell to people in Britain at the moment.”

The Prime Minister said at the Labour Party Conference last September that he wanted Britain to rejoin the EU.

He told The Guardian last year: “Long-term, I’m going to be honest, I’m going to say it, I want to rejoin it. Look, I hope in my lifetime I see this country rejoin the European Union.”

However, he rowed back on his comments during his campaign to win the Makerfield by-election, where he secured his route back to Westminster to become Prime Minister.

Mr Burnham said in June that he “respected” the decision of leave voters a decade ago and said he was “not proposing that the UK considers rejoining the EU”.

But the Prime Minister has said he wanted to be “bolder” about relations with the bloc, and told EU leaders in August he wanted to work together on education, culture and defence.

UK and EU officials are planning to hold an in-person summit between Mr Burnham and Ursula von der Leyen, along with other European leaders, next month.

The event was originally organised for July under Sir Keir Starmer, but was delayed after he announced his resignation.

Mr Burnham has vowed to stick to the red lines set by his predecessor in the 2024 Labour manifesto, not to return to the EU single market, customs union or freedom of movement.

But before he left office, Sir Keir was in talks with the bloc to negotiate a closer alignment on food products between the EU and the UK.