Andy Burnham has hinted he could ‘go all the way’ and propose rejoining the EU after saying Brexit was a disaster that did ‘more harm than good’ to the country
Andy Burnham has left the door open to rejoining the EU(Image: Victoria Jones/Shutterstock)
Andy Burnham has hinted he could “go all the way” and propose rejoining the EU after saying Brexit has been a disaster.
The Prime Minister said he would look at the pros and cons after telling the Labour party’s annual conference on Tuesday leaving the bloc had done “more harm than good”.
Mr Burnham, who is set to hold a summit with the EU later this year, went further today and said he did not want to leave the issue “hanging” and vowed to set out some options.
Crucially these could include rejoining, more than a decade after the historic referendum to leave. Asked whether he wanted the UK to go back into the EU, he said he wanted to “look at the options”.
He said: “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 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.”
Labour’s election manifesto in 2024 ruled out joining a customs union, going back into the single market or allowing the return of freedom of movement with the EU. But Mr Burnham has now indicated he is prepared to recommend going beyond those red lines in future.
He said: “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.”
During his conference speech on Tuesday, Mr Burnham stated: “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.”
On Wednesday, Mr Burnham also rejected suggestions that he was picking on pensioners with an overhaul of the triple lock as “completely wrong”.
The PM told Good Morning Britain: “I think you’ve got it completely wrong really, if you don’t mind me saying, to put it like that, because I have put out today a vision for a national care service.
“There are pensioners out there who watch your programme who are paying for care costs from their basic state pension. Now, is that right or fair? “We have to fix this system. But what I’m saying about the triple lock enables a better support, better care for people in their homes. No care charges.”
It came after he used his major conference speech to announce the post-2030 shake-up of the triple lock in order to fund his vision of a National Care Service.
During the emotional address, the Prime Minister spoke about his late father, Roy, who died earlier this month at the age of 86 after suffering with Alzheimer’s.
Asked by LBC what his dad would have made of his speech, he replied: “Oh, that’s a hard question. I struggled a little about that, because his funeral is on Friday.”
He added: “I wasn’t doing it to seek sympathy, because I had a choice to make with the speech. Do I just compartmentalise all of that away, or do I talk about it? He was a son of this city.”
