Burnham Signals EU Rejoin Could Be on the Table as Labour Shifts Post-Brexit Stance

Andy Burnham has indicated that rejoining the European Union could form part of a broader review of Britain's relationship with Brussels, in remarks that mark a significant shift in his public position on Brexit and could reshape the political battleground ahead of the next general election.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, the prime minister said the existing Brexit arrangement had done "more harm than good" and that he was determined to examine "what is doable" to repair the UK's ties with the bloc. His comments came after he used his Labour conference speech on Tuesday to promise closer engagement with the EU at a rescheduled summit later this year.

The prime minister stopped short of explicitly endorsing a return to membership, but he made clear that he did not want the question of Britain's European future to remain unresolved indefinitely. He said he wanted clarity on "where we want Britain to go in the next decade," adding that leaving the issue "hanging" would serve neither the country nor its economy well.

Asked directly whether he favoured rejoining the EU, Burnham replied that he wanted to "look at the options." He acknowledged that he had previously advocated such a move within his lifetime, while conceding it was "not necessarily the case that that is now." The careful phrasing suggested a deliberate effort to keep multiple paths open rather than commit to a single destination.

He went on to list several possible models for a future relationship. "We could stay as we are," he told the programme, describing that as a legitimate choice if voters believed the current settlement was the right one. Alternatively, he pointed to proposals floated by former chancellor George Osborne for a customs union arrangement, and to the Liberal Democrats' conference position favouring a return to the single market. "Or we could go all the way," he added, in an apparent reference to full membership.

Burnham stressed that each option carried distinct advantages and drawbacks, and that the government would need to weigh "what is doable" alongside the pros and cons of every scenario. The language implied a technocratic, evidence-led review rather than an immediate policy pivot, but the political significance of a prime minister naming rejoining the EU as a live option was unmistakable.

In his conference address, Burnham blamed Brexit for what he described as a loss of control over both immigration and the economy, telling delegates that the current relationship with Europe was not "good enough." He said he intended to use the delayed summit to set out "different options" for the UK's long-term relationship with the bloc, and promised to "find consensus" around a preferred approach — though he offered no detail on how that consensus would be measured or tested.

The prime minister's comments represent his clearest departure yet from Labour's 2024 election manifesto, which committed the party to "make Brexit work" while explicitly ruling out rejoining the customs union or the single market. During the Makerfield by-election that returned him to Parliament, Burnham had promised not to "re-run" the Brexit arguments and insisted he was "not proposing that the UK considers rejoining the EU."

His predecessor, Sir Keir Starmer, had pursued a more constrained reset with Brussels, focusing on narrower deliverables such as alignment with EU food standards, a youth mobility visa scheme, and reconnecting British industry to the EU's carbon trading regime. Sir Keir's departure from office pushed a planned summer summit back to later this year — a delay that has given Burnham room to widen the scope of the conversation.

The prime minister has also said he wants to publish a ten-year plan to transform the UK economy alongside the rescheduled summit, tying the European question directly to his domestic growth agenda. The combination suggests he views the EU relationship not as a standalone constitutional issue but as a lever for investment, trade and industrial strategy.

The opposition has seized on the remarks. Conservative deputy leader Alex Burghart accused Labour of trying to "reopen old wounds by restarting the battles of the Brexit years," arguing that the party could not blame a vote held more than a decade ago for its own economic decisions. He also claimed Labour was already "dragging us into the European Union via the back door" through its reset agenda — a line likely to be repeated frequently in the months ahead.

The political risk for Burnham is twofold. Reopening the European question could alienate voters in seats Labour won back from the Conservatives at the last election, many of which backed Leave in 2016. Yet with public opinion polls suggesting growing dissatisfaction with the economic consequences of Brexit, there is also a countervailing electoral logic: a clearer, more ambitious offer on Europe could differentiate Labour from a Conservative Party still committed to the current settlement.

Burnham's approach also creates a potential dividing line at the next general election, with the Liberal Democrats already campaigning for single market membership and some Labour figures urging a customs union. By refusing to foreclose any option, the prime minister keeps his coalition intact for now, but he delays the moment when he must choose — and the longer that moment is deferred, the more intense the speculation is likely to become.

For now, the immediate focus will be the rescheduled UK-EU summit and the accompanying economic plan. Whether Burnham uses that occasion to convert his list of options into a concrete negotiating mandate remains an open question, but his latest intervention has ensured that the shape of Britain's post-Brexit settlement is once again at the centre of national debate.