Andy Burnham has become the first prime minister since the UK left the European Union to reopen the Brexit debate, telling MPs the country must “face up to the reality that Brexit has done more harm than good”.
The prime minister made the case in the House of Commons, having first set it out at the Labour Party Conference last month. He also said “the status quo is not good enough for Britain”.
In the short term, Burnham wants to “deepen” the UK’s relationship with the EU at a summit in Brussels at the end of next month, scheduled for Friday 20 November. He insists any deepening would stay inside Labour’s general election commitment that the UK would say no to the customs union, the single market and freedom of movement.
In the medium term, he has said Labour’s next general election manifesto could promise an in-out referendum. He told BBC political editor Chris Mason a fortnight ago that the manifesto could carry such a pledge.
Addressing the Commons, Burnham said: “This country in the next decade needs to know where it’s going. There are no assumptions here, and as I said, the British public will be the boss of whatever is decided.”
Critics argue voters settled the matter a decade ago. Lord Frost, a former Brexit minister and chief Brexit negotiator, wrote in the Telegraph that voters “weighed the arguments and made a decision. The least they are owed is politicians willing to defend it.”
Burnham also told The Rest Is Politics podcast that, on arriving in Downing Street, he had asked whether there had been Russian interference in the Brexit referendum. “I’ve had a clear answer that, yes, there was,” he said, without saying who provided that answer or what evidence supported it.
In the Commons his language was softer, describing it as “inconceivable” that Russia did not try to interfere — a double negative about alleged attempts at interference.
Opponents responded immediately. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage called the prime minister “a liar”. Former prime minister Boris Johnson said he had asked the same question when he became foreign secretary “and they replied that there was no evidence of any successful interference in the 2016 referendum, by Russia or any other power”.
The dispute turns on the distinction between attempted interference, interference, and interference that succeeded.
Downing Street regards the five weeks before the Brussels summit as a chance to secure what it sees as short-term wins on youth mobility, food and drink, and energy. Burnham intends to argue that a sensible, pragmatic deepening of the relationship with Brussels can help cut illegal immigration and boost economic growth.
He sought to goad Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch over her opposition to a plan he believes can contribute to growth. She argued it risked regurgitating yesterday’s arguments with little prospect of success.
The government’s calculation is that the approach can tap into public sentiment. Opinion polls suggest a majority perceive that leaving the EU has not turned out as many might have hoped.
Burnham also hopes to draw pro-European voters broadly on the Left towards Labour, including those who have recently supported the Liberal Democrats, the Green parties of England, Wales and Scotland, the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru.
The debate resumes almost a decade after the 2016 referendum. The Conservatives won the 2015 general election with a manifesto promise of “a straight in-out referendum on our membership of the European Union by the end of 2017”, David Cameron then negotiated with the EU, and the referendum itself was held on Thursday 23 June 2016.
General elections followed in 2017 and 2019, and two further prime ministers — Theresa May and then Boris Johnson — held office before the UK left the European Union at 23:00 on Friday 31 January 2020.
Where all of this leads remains uncertain, the BBC’s political editor writes, but the coming weeks, months and perhaps years may carry a “Back to the Future” quality as the conversation about the UK’s relationship with its nearest neighbours resumes.
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