Britain Could Rejoin European Union On My Watch, Says Andy Burnham

Britain could rejoin the European Union under Labour, Andy Burnham has admitted.

The prime minister said reversing Brexit completely was “option” as he seeks closer ties with the bloc.

Burnham’s comments, in an interview with the BBC at Labour’s annual conference, opens the door to the party including a pledge to rejoin the EU in its next election manifesto.

The PM said Brexit had “done more harm than good” in his keynote speech to the conference on Wednesday.

“Brexit hasn’t given us control,” he said. “We’ve lost some of the control we had over our economy, as a decade of low growth has put us in a weaker position. And we’ve lost some of our control over immigration.”

A summit is due to be held later in the year to thrash out what the UK and EU’s relationship should be like in the future.

Among the other options are rejoining the EU customs union and single market, which was ruled out by his predecessor, Keir Starmer.

In his BBC interview, Burnham – who has previously said he would like the UK to rejoin the EU in his lifetime – said he wanted to be clear on “where we want Britain to go in the next decade”.

Asked whether he wanted the UK to rejoin the EU, he said he wanted to “look at the options”.

“We could stay as we are. That’s definitely an option, if people think this is the right place to stay,” the PM told Radio 4’s Today programme.

“We could look at what [former Tory chancellor] George Osborne has said about a customs union, we could look at what the Liberal Democrats said at their conference about the single market, or we could go all the way.”

Burnham’s comments are the clearest any prime minister has been about the UK possibly rejoining the EU since the 2016 Brexit referendum.

His comments have been welcomed by pro-EU Labour MPs, but risk a backlash from voters who want to move on from the Brexit debate.

Stella Creasy said: “Removing the red lines on Europe is the essential first step to restoring this country’s place on the world stage.

“We stand with this prime minister in making the changes that truly live up to the challenges of 2026, not 2016.”

But Tory deputy PM Alex Burghart accused Burnham of “trying to reopen old wounds by restarting the battles of the Brexit years”.

Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice accused the PM of “trying to sneak us back into Brussels by the back door”.

“He says Brexit has done more harm than good, but what’s done real harm is a Labour government that can’t deliver growth, can’t control migration and now wants to outsource the job to Brussels,” he said.

Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.