Theresa May must pick a side as Brexit fears for industry increase | Richard Partington

PM will head to latest EU summit with employers such as Airbus reconsidering investment in UK

Britain in 2016: the Conservatives are making a mess of running the nation, cutting public services to the bone and tearing themselves apart over Europe, while Labour under Jeremy Corbyn fail to make serious inroads as the opposition party of the day.

Fast forward two years since the Brexit vote and very little has changed. David Cameron might well have vanished from political life and Corbyn has indeed robbed Theresa May of the Tories' majority in parliament. Yet in terms of progress towards leaving the EU - on the second anniversary of the referendum over the weekend - the government has next to nothing of substance to show for itself.

Related: Tit-for-tat tariff battle could spark downturn in global economy - BIS

A customs union is an agreement by a group of countries, such as the EU, to all apply the same tariffs on imported goods from the rest of the world and, typically, eliminate them entirely for trade within the group. By doing this, they can help avoid the need for costly and time-consuming customs checks during trade between members of the union. Asian shipping containers arriving at Felixstowe or Rotterdam, for example, need only pass through customs once before their contents head to markets all over Europe. Lorries passing between Dover and Calais avoid delay entirely.