Neil Kinnock, the former Labour leader, believes Andy Burnham will take the UK back into the European Union, according to an interview he gave to the Italian newspaper la Repubblica.
His remarks follow a long statement to MPs on Monday in which Burnham declined to be drawn on whether the renegotiation of Britain’s relationship with the EU that he has planned would end with a Labour-led government rejoining the bloc after the next election. Pressed on the point by a Conservative MP, Burham said the question was getting ahead of itself.
Kinnock, one of three people Burnham has named as his political mentors, told the paper that the prime minister’s direction was plain. “Andy makes the declaration of his determination to change the relationship, and it’s obvious that his objective is to join again,” he said.
Asked whether Burnham was the figure who would deliver that outcome, Kinnock answered: “Yes, sure, sure, sure. His commitment is authentic.” He said Burnham grasped “from the grassroots up” why restoring what Kinnock regards as normality across the continent mattered for every party economically, politically, culturally and in security terms, and could express it in terms the public understood.
On Burnham’s decision to keep quiet about any wish to revisit the referendum result during the Makerfield byelection campaign, Kinnock said it came down to choosing when to hold the debate. He said Burnham had “always been a committed pro-European” and had been right not to make an issue of it, because the contest “wasn’t about Europe” but about taking the seat so that Burnham could become party leader.
Kinnock was interviewed by Antonello Guerrera, who asked how he felt, as someone who inherited a leftwing party and pulled it to the right, about a successor steering Labour leftwards. Kinnock said Burnham’s approach was the right one, describing it as common sense rather than a question of left and right. He likened Burnham’s thinking on the role of the state to what Winston Churchill did in the 1950s, and said Burnham was a socialist with a strong practical streak, rational in outlook and far more advanced than a decade ago in his appreciation of the importance of utility in politics. The two men, Kinnock added, are both socialists motivated by how useful ideas are when applied.
Kinnock is a former vice president of the European Commission and a firm supporter of European integration, and No 10 is expected to set out its own understanding of Burnham’s stance on rejoining at a lobby briefing later. Kinnock is a close friend of the prime minister and a sharp observer of Labour politics, but his account of Burnham’s intentions may reflect his own hopes.
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What is happening today
- Morning: Burnham meets business leaders in No 10.
- After 12.30pm: MPs debate the remaining stages of the courts and tribunals bill.
- 3pm: Wes Streeting, the defence secretary, gives evidence to the Commons defence committee.
- 5pm: Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, attends the weekly meeting of Lib Dem MPs, after two frontbenchers stepped down over concerns about his leadership.
A further round of prisoner releases is taking place in England under the early release scheme.
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