Andy Burnham has not ruled out putting pledge to rejoin EU in Labour’s next manifesto
The prime minister suggested Brexit had come about due to “outside actors” seeking to “manipulate” and “distort facts”
Andy Burnham has not ruled out including a pledge for Britain to rejoin the EU in Labour’s next election manifesto.
Speaking to journalists ahead of his first meeting with the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, today, Burnham did not rule out Britain rejoining the EU and said he would continue Keir Starmer’s focus on strengthening ties with the bloc.
Asked by reporters on his flight to New York on Monday for the UN general assembly whether he would rule out a reversal of Brexit being in the next Labour manifesto, he said: “Our focus at the moment is on a UK/EU summit which we hope will take place later this year.
“My immediate priority is to build on the good work that Keir did in rebuilding bridges. Because those bridges were broken in the early part of this decade. And Keir did a good job in re-establishing that relationship.
“What we have got to do now is go to the next level in terms of reaching practical agreement that will further boost the British economy. And those issues are the substance of the summit alongside EU requests around youth mobility.”
Referring to rejoining the EU, he said: “The other issues you discuss — they are for another day.”
Burnham was critical of the “turbulence” Brexit has caused over the last decade.
He told reporters on the plane, that “reflecting on that last decade, what we’ve experienced is when that turbulence comes, when outside actors seek to manipulate, to distort facts, influence the British democratic process.
“Going into the next decade we need to be clear-eyed about that and become stronger and more on the front foot about challenging that.
“Perhaps Britain can say we have experienced some of the turbulence before others in terms of the politics of recent times. We need to be clearer where outside forces, our enemies, are trying to manipulate that opinion and feeling to serve their interests, not ours.”
A new poll by YouGov for Best for Britain found that in all but four of the 632 seats in Britain, rejoining the EU was the most popular option.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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