{"id":590131,"date":"2026-05-18T06:57:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T06:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/590131\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T06:57:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T06:57:10","slug":"burnham-allies-say-streetings-brexit-comments-unhelpful-as-he-seeks-to-stand-in-by-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/590131\/","title":{"rendered":"Burnham allies say Streeting&#8217;s Brexit comments unhelpful as he seeks to stand in by-election"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Brexit back on the agenda as Burnham prepares to take on Reformpublished at 06:33 BST<\/p>\n<p>06:33 BST<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-qs9kpv-Contributor etflsgg2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/e339aa59-4775-483a-a32b-1c8dfef8da88.jpg.webp\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Joe Pike<br \/>Political correspondent<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/bdc05059-6f0e-4673-9979-43343e0873ec.jpg.webp\"  width=\"2000\" height=\"1229\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, PA MediaImage caption, <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">To win in Makerfield &#8211; an area that supported Brexit in 2016 &#8211; Andy Burnham would have to beat Reform. The by-election date is not confirmed, although could take place on 18 June<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Allies of the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, have criticised his Labour leadership rival &#8211; Wes Streeting &#8211; for saying that &#8220;Britain&#8217;s future lies with Europe &#8211; and one day, back in the European Union&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">They tell the BBC the former health secretary\u2019s intervention was unhelpful because highlighting the issue of Brexit could make it more difficult for Burnham to beat Reform in the forthcoming by-election in Makerfield in Greater Manchester. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Winning the seat would allow Burnham to challenge Keir Starmer and become prime minister.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In 2024, Labour\u2019s general election manifesto promised that there would be<br \/>\nno return to the EU single market, the customs union, or freedom of<br \/>\nmovement. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">If either Andy Burnham or Wes Streeting were to succeed Sir Keir<br \/>\nStarmer, the UK would have a prime minister who supported rejoining<br \/>\nthe EU at some point in the future. Over the weekend both men reaffirmed that position, but Streeting<br \/>\ndid it far more whole-heartedly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He said in a speech that Brexit was a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c17297n77z1o\" class=\"ssrcss-ztter6-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">catastrophic mistake<\/a> and that one<br \/>\nday the UK should rejoin the EU.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Allies of Burnham believe that intervention was unhelpful, since it<br \/>\nhighlights an issue the Greater Manchester mayor wants to avoid in the<br \/>\nby-election. He faces a battle to beat Reform in a leave-supporting area. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Yet Burnham said in an interview on Saturday that &#8220;in the long-term<br \/>\nthere was a case&#8221; for rejoining the EU, although he wasn\u2019t advocating<br \/>\nthat during this campaign. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A spokesperson for Streeting told the BBC that he had always been a<br \/>\npro-European, and the party shouldn\u2019t fear debate or ideas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brexit back on the agenda as Burnham prepares to take on Reformpublished at 06:33 BST 06:33 BST Joe&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-590131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}