{"id":599750,"date":"2026-05-23T12:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T12:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/599750\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T12:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T12:12:08","slug":"uk-needs-national-consensus-over-rejoining-eu-david-miliband-says-david-miliband","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/599750\/","title":{"rendered":"UK needs \u2018national consensus\u2019 over rejoining EU, David Miliband says | David Miliband"},"content":{"rendered":"

Britain needs a \u201cnational consensus\u201d about rejoining the European Union, David Miliband has said, in response to revelations that the UK government pitched the creation of a single market for goods<\/a> with the EU to the bloc.<\/p>\n

The former foreign secretary, who is now president of the International Rescue Committee, said he thought the UK needed a reset of its relations with the EU at \u201ca much higher dosage\u201d than the government was planning.<\/p>\n

Asked on BBC Radio 4\u2019s Today programme about the report by the Guardian<\/a>, he said he was \u201cabsolutely convinced\u201d the security and prosperity of the UK depended on an \u201cinstitutionalised, deep and strong relationship with the rest of Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the government says we want a reset of our relations with Europe<\/a>, I think that\u2019s a good thing, but then when I look at the reset so far, [which] is only worth \u00a39bn by 2040 and I remember that Britain is a \u00a33tn economy, I\u2019m left saying no, we need a much higher dosage in our reset.\u201d<\/p>\n

When pressed on whether he would advocate for rejoining the union, he said: \u201cWhat we have to do is build a national consensus about our position with the European Union<\/a>. I\u2019m very happy with it as a long-term goal \u2026 I want this strong institutional relationship with the European Union, but then I know the deal we had until 2016 is not available now; we\u2019re not going to be able to get that deal again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The European Union is changing profoundly, he said, with Ukraine an increasingly important factor. \u201cThe big issue for Brussels today is not Britain joining; it\u2019s Ukraine joining,\u201d Miliband continued. \u201cThey\u2019re talking about associate membership for Ukraine; they\u2019re talking about different tiers of membership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding the Labour<\/a> leadership challenge, in which his brother, Ed Miliband, could play an influential role, he said he was more concerned with government action than leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cBritain is in the eye of a global storm. The global order is being ripped up. Our economy is being transformed by new technology. Our welfare system needs to shift from a focus on older people to an investment in younger people \u2013 a million people between the age of 16 and 24 [are] not in education or training,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have got a massive debate to have in this country about how we spur wealth creation, distribute it fairly [and] reinvent the way in which a government works \u2026 If we spend all our time talking about who, not what, we\u2019re going to miss the point. The \u2018what\u2019 questions are absolutely key.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether he thought the Labour party needed a new leader and the country needed a new prime minister, he said: \u201cWhen the world changes, we have to change. And in the two years since the general election, the world has changed fundamentally.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Britain needs a \u201cnational consensus\u201d about rejoining the European Union, David Miliband has said, in response to revelations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-599750","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\/599750","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=599750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}