Britain would not be able to rejoin the European Union on the special terms it enjoyed before Brexit, according to former EU officials involved in the negotiations. The warnings come as senior Labour figures, including those vying for leadership, have spoken openly about a potential return to the bloc.
Georg Riekeles, a former adviser on the EU’s Brexit taskforce, said member states would take “a very warm, welcoming” stance but also a “hard-headed” one to a British membership application. “There is a strategic need for the EU and the UK to work together, but I don’t think there would be an appetite for opening up new decades of British exceptionalism,” he said. “The price of re-entry would be membership on normal terms.”
Sandro Gozi, Italy’s Europe minister from 2014 to 2018, echoed this view, stating that “the tailor-made suit is gone” and that the UK would need to negotiate on standard terms, including the euro and Schengen zone. Gozi, now an MEP, predicted EU states would welcome a British application despite uncertainty over a possible Nigel Farage premiership.
Wes Streeting, a Labour MP, argued over the weekend that the UK should rejoin the EU in the future, reigniting internal party divisions. Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, has also expressed a desire for rejoining within his lifetime but clarified he would not prioritise it if he became prime minister.
Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, warned Britain not to expect a similar deal to its “de-facto à la carte membership” of the past, urging British elites to “internalise” that benefits come with pooling sovereignty. Riekeles added that the EU would need to see a “durable national consensus” that the UK has genuinely changed its mind.
