Burnham: ‘We could go all the way’ on EU membership
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said the government is weighing options from staying as it is to full EU membership, amid pressure over Britain’s post-Brexit relationship with the European Union.
Britain could “go all the way” and rejoin the European Union, Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said, setting out the options being weighed for the UK’s long-term relationship with Brussels.
The prime minister set out the options in interviews after the Labour Party conference speech in Liverpool on 29 September, saying the government could keep the current arrangements, seek a customs union, join the single market, or pursue full membership.
“We could stay as we are. That’s definitely an option, if people think this is the right place to stay,” Burnham said.
“We could look at what George Osborne has said about a customs union, we could look at what the Liberal Democrats said at their conference about the single market, or we could go all the way,” Burnham said.
Burnham, who became prime minister after a Labour leadership change earlier this year, told the conference that Brexit “has done more harm than good” to the UK economy and had weakened Britain’s control over immigration by ending cooperation with European partners.
“We will not give Britain the clear path we need into the rest of the century until we decide on a long-term relationship with what is still our largest market,” Burnham told the conference.
Osborne, a former Conservative chancellor, had called for the UK to seek re-entry to the customs union in a newspaper interview published earlier in the week, comments the prime minister referred to directly.
Burnham said the government would try to “find consensus” on one option ahead of a summit with the European Union (EU) planned before the end of the year.
Reform UK leader Richard Tice criticised the move, saying: “Andy Burnham has barely been prime minister five minutes and he’s already trying to sneak us back into Brussels via the back door.”