Burnham urged to initiate EU rejoining process
Andy Burnham must start work immediately on rejoining the EU, Sadiq Khan has said, urging the prime minister to do the “heavy lifting” on returning to the bloc as soon as possible, reports BritPanorama.
Speaking from the Labour Party conference in Liverpool on Sunday, the London Mayor told the i Paper: “We’ve got to start the work now. You can’t, a week before a general election, pull out of a hat this rabbit of a manifesto and say we’re going to rejoin in six weeks’ time.”
He added, “The heavy lifting, the pitch-rolling must be done now, explaining to the country the disbenefits of being outside the European Union and the benefits of being part of this family.”
While Burnham has previously expressed a desire to see Britain rejoin, he later committed to Sir Keir Starmer’s red lines on the EU, which rule out a return to the single market or customs union.
This latest statement comes just days after Sir Tony Blair suggested that Britain should commit to rejoining the European Union within the next decade, calling for a “new approach” to post-Brexit ties.
The former prime minister urged Burnham to demand a “structured relationship” with the bloc and to abandon Sir Keir Starmer’s piecemeal strategy toward Britain’s EU ties, which he characterized as “inching towards” Europe due to evolving public opinion.
However, Blair also indicated that rejoining the single market and customs union would be misguided, advocating instead for Burnham to pursue a “significantly reformed” EU along with internal reforms that could elevate Europe to a superpower status capable of competing with the US and China.
The comments from Khan reflect mounting pressure on Burnham to reassess the relationship with Europe and consider the implications of rejoining the EU, particularly amidst ongoing economic uncertainty and a complicated relationship with the United States.
During a recent trip to New York, the prime minister did not dismiss the possibility of including a commitment to rejoin the EU in the next Labour manifesto when questioned by The Independent.
Additionally, a report by the Institute for Public Policy revealed that £6.5 billion a year is being lost in exports to the EU due to a lack of mutual recognition of standards, while YouGov polling for Best for Britain indicates that Labour’s strongest chance to secure victory in the next election hinges on including a pledge to rejoin the EU.
Sir John Curtice, a prominent British pollster, remarked earlier this month that support for rejoining the EU is the highest it has been since the 2016 referendum. Furthermore, a separate analysis found that nearly all of the 632 constituencies in Great Britain would support returning to the bloc.
