Andy Burnham provoked Brexiteer fury as he ramped up efforts to drag Britain closer to the EU. The Prime Minister said it would be a “dereliction of duty” not to get a better deal with Brussels, claiming it would boost economic growth and tackle illegal immigration.
Mr Burnham declared he will use an EU summit next month as a launchpad for restoring ties. But his latest salvo in the war on Brexit triggered widespread fury. Nigel Farage said the PM’s actions are an insult to the 17.4 million people who voted to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum.
PM’s EU summit plan
Writing exclusively in the Daily Express - which successfully campaigned for Britain to leave the EU - he said: “The British people didn't fight to break free from the EU just to crawl back on our hands and knees.
“We've won this argument before. We will do so again.”
Mr Burnham said he will meet European commission chief Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels on November 20. He confirmed the two sides are looking at a deal to ease the movement of food and drink across borders - as well as a controversial youth “free movement” scheme.
Reaction from Tory leaders
Hinting he wants to go even further, Mr Burnham told MPs there was an “opportunity” to improve ties because the “status quo is not good enough” for Britain. But he also stressed that he wanted the meeting to be the start of a “serious dialogue” about the future relationship.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch accused Mr Burnham of “unpicking” the existing UK-EU agreement, and told MPs: “He is not going to get a better deal.”
Mr Burnham’s statement came a fortnight after he used his first conference speech as Labour leader to open the door to Britain rejoining the EU. He also failed to rule out a future Labour election manifesto including a promise to rejoin the bloc.
Referendum stance and Russian interference claim
Last month, Burnham told the BBC it was "possible" a future Labour election manifesto could promise a new in-out referendum on the EU. In response to a question from Sir Edward Leigh, the Conservative MP for Gainsborough and Father of the House, the Prime Minister suggested a second referendum would be needed to do so.
Mr Burnham suggested he will not seek to rejoin the EU without another referendum. He added: “I am not reopening the referendum. I respect the referendum result, as I have just said a moment ago,” he said.
“But what I will do is take a pragmatic approach when I can boost growth in the British economy, when I can increase cooperation to get a grip on the boat crossings across the Channel, I will do those things where I believe they can be in the country’s best interests.”
He said deals on the table could provide a £10 billion-a-year boost to the UK economy.
In her response, Mrs Badenoch mocked the Prime Minister for “blurting out everything he wants” from the EU in his address to the Commons, warning that is “not how you conduct negotiations”.
“His exact words earlier this year were, ‘the last thing we should do right now is rerun those arguments’,” she added. “And yet here he is unpicking the deal this country signed with the EU a decade after the referendum. He is not going to get a better deal.”
She added: “It’s not just that the EU are tough negotiators. He has already revealed his entire negotiating hand. He has just blurted out everything he wants in this statement, and I will tell you, tell him now, Mr Speaker, as a former trade secretary, this is not how you conduct negotiations.”
Former Tory Cabinet Secretary John Redwood told the Express: “Mr Burnham does so want to live in the past. If he is not campaigning against Margaret Thatcher for daring to win elections in the 1980s and transforming the economy, he is campaigning to reopen the conclusive Brexit vote of 2016.
This is bad politics, bad for democracy and bad for our current economic prospects.”
Mr Burnham also insisted that he never claimed Russia swung the result of the EU referendum. The Prime Minister made the comments after the Tory leader said he had “implied that the referendum result was illegitimate because of Russian interference” in his interview with the Rest is Politics podcast over the weekend.
Mr Burnham replied: “Can I just address the point that she said? I implied no such thing in my comments on the Rest is Politics podcast. I think she should go back and look again.”
In his interview with the podcast, Mr Burnham claimed that Moscow had interfered with the Brexit referendum in 2016. He said: “I asked the question coming to Downing Street, well was there interference in the 2016 referendum from Russia? I’ve had the clear answer that, yes, there was.
“These things are important now to put clearly on the record and I believe help voters in Germany and France understand that some of this politics is instigated via our enemies, namely, Russia.”
A Conservative spokesman said: "There can be no doubt that his words to the Rest Is Politics were intended to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the referendum result.
"By not answering Kemi Badenoch's question, Andy Burnham has all but conceded this was a deliberate ploy intended to sow more division, reopen the battles of the past, and bolster his own case for rejoining the EU.
"The Prime Minister should come out and clarify his words immediately."
