Andy Burnham says the UK could re-join the EU under his leadership
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he wanted to ‘look at the options’ for resetting the UK’s relationship with Europe.
Andy Burnham has suggested the UK could re-join the EU under his leadership.
The Prime Minister said the current Brexit settlement has caused “more harm than good” and wants to repair the UK’s long-term relationship with Europe.
In his speech to the UK Labour Party conference in Liverpool on Tuesday, Mr Burnham pledged to explore closer ties with Europe. However, he told the BBC on Wednesday morning that he will consider reversing the UK’s decision to leave the EU.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Burnham said he did not want to leave the question of the UK-EU relationship “hanging” and wanted to be clear on “where we want Britain to go in the next decade”.
When asked if he wants the UK to re-join the EU, he said he wanted to “look at the options”.
He added: “We could stay as we are. That’s definitely an option, if people think this is the right place to stay.
“We could look at what [former 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.
“So there are clearly options that need to be considered, and we have to look at what is doable and what would be the pros and cons of each.”
This is despite Mr Burnham promising not to “re-run” the Brexit arguments and said he was “not proposing that the UK considers re-joining the EU” while he was a candidate in the Makerfield by-election.
During his conference speech on Tuesday, Mr Burnham blamed Brexit for a loss of control over immigration and the economy, and told party members the current relationship with Europe was not “good enough”.
He also said he wanted to use a rescheduled summit later this year to lay out “different options” for the UK’s long-term relationship with Europe.
Mr Burnham said: “Brexit hasn’t given us control.
“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.”
The Conservatives are now accusing the Prime Minister of trying to “reopen old wounds by restarting the battles of the Brexit years”.
Alex Burghart, deputy leader of the UK Conservatives, said: “Labour cannot pin the blame for their disastrous economic decisions on a vote that happened over a decade ago.
“Besides, they are already dragging us into the European Union via the back door with their EU reset.”
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