Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has acknowledged there will be ‘costs as well as benefits’ for Britain as it seeks to get closer to the European Union again
Andy Burnham has reignited the debate about the UK’s relationship with the EU(Image: NEIL HALL/EPA/Shutterstock)
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has acknowledged there will be trade-offs for Britain as it seeks to get closer to the European Union again.
The Cabinet minister admitted there are “costs as well as benefits” to a closer relationship with the bloc as she was asked about the possibility of thousands of young people from the EU entering Britain.
Andy Burnham has reignited the debate about the UK’s relationship with the EU since entering Downing Street this summer. The Prime Minister has said Brexit had done more harm than good and that a better relationship with the bloc could boost economic growth and help tackle illegal immigration.
The issue will remain high on the agenda this month as the PM heads to the European Political Community (EPC) Summit this week and major UK-EU summit in Brussels on November 20.
A youth mobility scheme – that would allow young people in EU members to live and work in the UK – is among deals under negotiation ahead of the crunch summit. The UK is said to be pushing for a cap of about 50,000 people arriving a year but the EU wants the limit to be more like 150,000.
Asked if the 150,000 figure was true, and whether it would be acceptable to her constituents, Ms Nandy said: “Well, we’ll have those conversations with our European counterparts, but we’ll also have those conversations too with the British people, because it is right to say that there are costs as well as benefits to a closer relationship with the European Union.
“There are trade-offs to be made, and we can’t cut people out of that conversation.” Ms Nandy, who represents the leave-voting Wigan constituency, suggested she is not in favour of rejoining the trade bloc.
She told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “The only thing that I think the British people are absolutely united on right now is that we left the European Union a decade ago with the promise of a close Brexit deal and the promise of benefits from that deal, and most of those have not been realised. It’s not working for people across this country, and we’ve got to do better.”
Brussels’ former chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier told the BBC Britain cannot rejoin without having freedom of movement between the UK and the EU.
Mr Barnier said: “There is no cherry picking. There will be no possibility to have one freedom and not the other. The four freedoms (of good, movement of people, services and capital) are clearly the four conditions to be inside the single market.”
Andy Burnham told the Sunday Mirror any deals made at an upcoming UK-EU summit are “not the end of our ambition” in improving the relationship with the bloc.
The Prime Minister said: “It pays to have a good relationship with your neighbours, and the practical deals we are agreeing with Europe will pay off for families across the UK.
“Cutting red tape on food coming in and out of the country will ease pressure on prices at the supermarket, while making life easier for farmers and food producers. This summit will show what we can achieve when we work together, but it doesn’t need to be the end of our ambition.
“Working more closely with Europe could drive growth, make our country safer and give us more tools to tackle illegal migration. That’s a conversation worth having.”
Elsewhere, Ms Nandy rejected allegations that celebrating the UK rejoining Erasmus+ by linking it to Remembrance Sunday was inappropriate. The Tories suggested she was using the national civic occasion to “try to make an EU membership pitch”. She told Sky News: “I strongly, strongly disagree, and it’s Remembrance Sunday, it’s not a time for politicking.”
