Burnham signals he will fight next election on platform of taking Britain back into

Andy Burnham today signalled Labour will fight the next general election on a platform of undoing Brexit and taking Britain back into the European Union.

The Prime Minister this morning ruled out making the seismic change in this parliament – which is due to end in July 2029 at the latest. 

But he pointedly refused to rule it out after an election if Labour retains power, setting up a potentially blockbuster election when it happens.

Mr Burnham again dampened speculation there would be a snap election, saying he did not expect to go to the country ‘any time soon’.

But when it does happen it is shaping up to be a major moment for the country, with Mr Burnham pinning a shopping list of huge changes on keeping his job. 

Mr Burnham told ITV‘s Good Morning Britain he wants to see Britain rejoin the EU ‘in [his] lifetime’, but claimed he would not ‘move ahead of the public’.  

‘We have a decade of experience now looking back at Brexit. I don’t think it has played out as people said it would at the time. We got a harder Brexit. It has weakened our economy.

‘I am not proposing rejoining in this Parliament. I said we wouldn’t re-run the referendum. That’s not what I’m doing. The British public will be the bosses here.

‘I don’t think things have worked out as they said they would at the time, particularly when it comes to immigration.’

It came amid reports Eurosceptic ministers will be told to back rejoining, with freedom of movement, if that is what Mr Burnham decides to do, or lose their jobs.

Mr Burnham told ITV’s Good Morning Britain he was ‘not proposing any changes in this Parliament’ – but refused to rule it out at the next

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood are among those who cautioned against a return to the bloc, with Ms Nandy saying in May that it was ‘a world away’ from what the public wants.

‘Essentially that is saying to people in towns like mine in Wigan that we just need to go back to 2015 when everything was fine,’ she told ITV News at the time.

‘Everything was not fine then. We’ve got serious action that we need to take as a country to make sure that the economy, housing, public services work for people in a way that they haven’t done for a really long time.’

But yesterday, Housing Secretary Angela Rayner told BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: ‘I want to see the best deal for the people of my constituency and for Britain.

‘We haven’t got the best deal at the moment because we’ve seen exports reduced by 20 per cent, we’ve seen the red tape and the friction that has meant that a lot of our businesses are not able to trade in the way that they would like with our biggest trading partners.

‘So, I would like us to have an honest conversation about what the trade-offs could be and then put that to the people at a general election.’

On re-adopting free movement rules, Mr Burnham told the Sunday Times that the nature of immigration into the UK had been ‘different’ since Brexit – with more foreigners moving permanently rather than returning to their home countries.

Reports today also suggest Mr Burnham will expect ministers previously critical of rejoining the EU to back doing so if he decides it is in the country’s best interests, even if it also includes freedom of movement.

The Prime Minister wants to consider various options for a new relationship with Brussels, potentially including a return to full EU membership or joining the single market – which would require free movement.

Mr Burnham will meet EU chiefs including European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels on November 20 as he seeks to strike a better deal with the bloc.

But he also wants a discussion about the long-term future of the UK-EU relationship, ten years after the country voted for Brexit.

The Prime Minister was asked on Monday morning if he would allow the UK to join the EU freedom of movement scheme without a referendum.

He said: ‘No, I mean I wasn’t saying that yesterday. I was asked about how things have changed in the 10 years since Brexit, and the truth of the matter is we’ve lost immigration control in the way that we once had.

‘For instance, the small boats crisis has arisen in the last 10 years because we lost that returns agreement when people came here that we could work with other countries to return them.

‘And when it comes to immigration more broadly, we’re seeing a situation where people are coming here to settle permanently in a way that we had more revolving door migration in the EU.’