UK Business Secretary Warns Constitutional EU Questions Cause Business Uncertainty

LIVERPOOL, England — U.K. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds warned Sunday that "constitutional questions" around Britain's EU relationship are causing "uncertainty" for business.

During an interview in The POLITICO Pub at Labour Party conference, the senior Cabinet minister said the U.K. should be focused on "how we can improve that trade relationship," rather than whether Labour should push for Britain to rejoin the bloc.

"I think we can frankly get more from what we need for our people, for our businesses here, by pragmatically looking at this through a trade lens. How can we improve that trade relationship, rather than these constitutional questions, which, frankly, you know, they cause a lot of uncertainty for business."

He backed the U.K. government's current approach to the European Union, warning people would be "misplaced" to seek to return to a customs union. "Look at the arrangements we've already got," he said. "You don't add a lot more to it through a customs union ... and you'd be having to, you know, frankly, accept a whole range of alignment on regulatory issues," he added.

Reynolds comments come days after former Prime Minister Tony Blair published a paper calling for the U.K. to rejoin a "reformed" union within the next decade. Burnham left the door open to putting a rejoin pledge in Labour's next election manifesto when speaking to journalists during a trip to New York earlier this month.

Asked if the U.K. should rejoin the EU within his lifetime, Reynolds said: "What what will Europe be in the future? I mean, there are clearly very challenging politics in Germany. It's very clear that the French presidential election could be different. I honestly don't know if you will evolve in one direction or the other. So I can't really give you an answer to that."

The business secretary added that the U.K. better regulates industries like the tech sector.