Saturday, 10 October 2026

Burnham Going All The Way With EU

Andy Burnham has said that he was prepared 'to go all the way' in terms of the UK’s relationship with the EU  which most of us took as a commitment to rejoin the EU in the next Labour manifesto.
Another non committal kite flying exercise, the idea of reversing Brexit seems to have wide public support and the EU seem to be taking the idea seriously, with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, promising to welcome the UK back.
It's not difficult to see why the idea of rejoining is tempting, the UK economy is languishing thanks to to the estimated 6% cost of Brexit to GDP and even Brexit enthusiasts struggle to find any benefits to being outside of the largest single market on the planet which just happens to be literally on our doorstep and even non European countries, notably Canada, Australia and New Zealand, appear to be moving closer to the EU so how stupid would you have to be to not want to rejoin the Party?
Burnham's predecessor Keir Starmer, did make noises about moving closer to the EU and he did make some headway but Burnham seems to have come in with a speedy determination to change things and has been impressive so far and a TMG Poll last week found that  rejoining is supported by almost half of all voters and would boost Labour’s vote share by as much as seven points.
We may need another referendum but Labour are thinking if they make it part of their Manifesto that would serve as a mandate and we have non-European nations negotiating membership of the single market via the European Economic Area which is a template we could attach ourselves to rather than go the whole hog.
The biggest thing in Burnham's favour is that he can point to what a complete nightmare it has been economically and politically for Britain since we left and i'm sure creeps like Nigel Farage will fight to try to keep us out but again Labour have the trump card of pointing to look how wrong he was about everything last time and the consequences for our country, so would you honestly trust him again?

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