David Cameron has warned Andy Burnham against dragging Britain back into the European Union, urging the Prime Minister not to trigger a “decade-long debate” on rejoining the Brussels club.
The former PM, who fronted the campaign to Remain and quit after losing the 2016 referendum, insisted that starting a conversation about returning to the bloc would be “very long and painful”. It comes as Mr Burnham is looking at options for the UK's future relationship with the EU.
Warns against 'flirting with rejoining'
In a bombshell intervention, the Tory grandee said he was “desperately disappointed” when the country voted to leave the bloc 10 years ago but warned against reversing the decision.
Lord Cameron told Bloomberg: “Instead of launching an argument about rejoining, which I think would be a very long and painful argument – and who knows where it would end up – instead of that, focus on how do we be the best friend, best neighbour, best partner.”
He said that “flirting with rejoining” could undermine efforts to get a better partnership deal with the bloc, because EU countries may think there is no point in doing so if the UK is set to rejoin anyway.
“If you’re not going to, you know, commit to trying to make the partnership stronger because you’re flirting with rejoining, I think there’s some dangers there,” he said.
Denies Brexit caused economic problems
Lord Cameron also denied the UK's economic problems are down to Brexit. He said: “Our economic problems are we are overspending, over-borrowing, over-taxing, over-regulated, and far too much being spent on working-age welfare. Those are a set of problems that have nothing to do with Brexit.”
“Do we really want to go into another decade-long debate about whether we should be in or out, when actually we should deal with our own problems while making the partnership model work?”
The PM is due to set out options on the future relationship with Brussels next week but he has insisted voters would ultimately be “the boss” of any changes.
