Prime Minister Andy Burnham has told MPs he will push for new post-Brexit deals with the EU at a summit next month, saying “deeper cooperation” on youth mobility, food and drink, and energy would help drive UK economic growth.
In a statement to the Commons, Burnham also warned that the EU’s Made In Europe proposals posed “a risk to UK manufacturing” and said talks were under way to secure “an arrangement” that worked for the UK. The EU plans are intended to shield European industry from Chinese competitors but could affect British manufacturers and supply chains.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused the prime minister of “unpicking” the deal the UK signed with the EU.
Burnham said Labour’s manifesto commitments ruling out a return to the single market, the customs union, or freedom of movement would remain until the next election, despite his stated wish to negotiate a closer relationship with Brussels.
He described a successful outcome at the November summit as the “immediate priority”, adding: “I believe we should then set up a serious dialogue about the different options for our relationship in the long term.
“At every stage, the British public will be the boss, and I am clear that public opinion currently supports a pragmatic approach like the one I am suggesting.”
While the prime minister has committed to Labour’s current Brexit red lines, he did not rule out a new manifesto in interviews after Labour conference, which could include re-joining the EU.
Economic growth and cooperation on illegal immigration are expected to sit at the centre of No 10’s case for a closer relationship, both at and beyond next month’s summit.
The 2020 withdrawal agreement settled the UK’s “divorce bill” payments and allowed UK rules and regulations to begin diverging from the EU’s, which was necessary to negotiate trade deals with other countries. Divergence in food standards subsequently created problems for UK food exports to its largest market, an issue Sir Keir Starmer began to address by renegotiating some common rules to cut red tape.
In May 2025, that process produced a post-Brexit deal granting continued access to UK waters for EU fishing boats until 2038, in exchange for reduced checks on food exports to the EU, allowing the UK to sell raw burgers and sausages back into the bloc for the first time since Brexit.
Burnham told MPs the coming summit would put a series of deals with the EU on the table, covering food and drink, energy trading, and coordination on immigration.
He said these agreements could add the equivalent of £10bn per year to the economy by 2040, arguing it would be a “dereliction of duty” to pass up the chance to cut bureaucracy.
“At present entire truckloads of plants or fresh produce can be destroyed because of a single missing stamp or a minor paperwork delay,” he said.
“Fresh meat and fish spoil while waiting in trucks, and tonnes of exports have to be written off. Our largest food export, Scottish salmon, faces a 100% rate of document checks at the border, costing us around £100m in lost exports.
“British burgers and other fresh meat products cannot be sold in the EU, seed potatoes from Scotland and shellfish from Wales are banned – this is having a real impact on businesses and the agreement on the table could reverse some of that damage.”
The prime minister said a fresh agreement at the summit would also “ease the pressure on prices in the supermarket”.
He said an energy deal involving emissions trading could “lower energy costs for households and businesses alike”, adding it could cut wholesale energy costs by 20% in Northern Ireland.
Burnham said he also hoped to rebuild links with EU police and security agencies to improve information-sharing and help tackle smuggling gangs.
He argued that being open about a new relationship with the EU was necessary to secure a good deal across these areas: “If we are serious about promoting growth, controlling immigration, upholding our values and security, it is a conversation we must have.
“Sticking with the status quo is not good enough for Britain.”
Badenoch criticised the prime minister for “unpicking the deal this country signed with the EU a decade after the referendum”.
She said Burnham would not secure a better deal than the one the Conservatives obtained, accusing him of giving the game away before the summit. “His exact words earlier this year were, ‘the last thing we should do right now is re-run those arguments’ and yet here he is unpicking the deal this country signed with the EU a decade after the referendum,” she said.
“He is not going to get a better deal. The EU are tough negotiators, and it’s not just that the EU are tough negotiators, he has already revealed his entire negotiating hand.
“He has just blurted out everything he wants in this statement and I will tell him now, as a former trade secretary, this is not how you conduct negotiations.”
Burnham mocked the previous negotiations in response: “She says that, oh, I’ve revealed what I want to do and this isn’t any way to negotiate it – because the Tories were so good, weren’t they, at negotiating deals with our partners?”
Conservative former trade minister Nigel Huddleston said post-Brexit trade deals with countries such as the US and India meant a new EU agreement would not be straightforward. He said clauses in “some of the 70-something other trade deals” the UK struck could complicate unwinding the measures Burnham wants to change.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey welcomed Burnham’s recognition of the “damage” of Brexit and urged him to go further by dropping Labour’s red lines and opening negotiations on joining the EU single market and customs union.
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