{"id":778852,"date":"2026-09-22T12:10:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T12:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/778852\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T12:10:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T12:10:23","slug":"andy-burnham-does-not-rule-out-brexit-reversal-being-in-next-labour-manifesto-labour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/778852\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham does not rule out Brexit reversal being in next Labour manifesto | Labour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Burnham has opened the door to fighting the next election on the UK rejoining the EU, but said his immediate priority was continuing to rebuild bridges<\/a> with European allies.<\/p>\n

The prime minister, who will hold his first meeting with the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, on Tuesday, did not rule out including reversing Brexit in Labour\u2019s next manifesto \u2013 but suggested the country should focus on securing closer trading ties first.<\/p>\n

Ministers have expressed fears privately that the EU reset has lost significant momentum since Burnham became prime minister, and a summit on the issue is likely to be delayed again unless the bloc agrees to discuss legislation that could lock British business out of parts of EU industry.<\/p>\n

Burnham has said he will stick to Keir Starmer\u2019s red lines this side of an election, but he is under pressure from Labour MPs who opposed Brexit<\/a> to change tack, in part because of the potential boost to growth, even though his own seat of Makerfield voted to leave.<\/p>\n

Asked by reporters on his flight to New York on Monday for the UN general assembly whether he could rule out a reversal of Brexit being in the next Labour<\/a> manifesto, he said: \u201cOur focus at the moment is on a UK\/EU summit which we hope will take place later this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy immediate priority is to build on the good work that Keir did in rebuilding bridges. Because those bridges were broken in the early part of this decade. And Keir did a good job in re-establishing that relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we have got to do now is go to the next level in terms of reaching practical agreement that will further boost the British economy. And those issues are the substance of the summit alongside EU requests around youth mobility.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prime minister admitted he had concerns about the bloc\u2019s \u201cmade in Europe\u201d legislation, which is designed to curb China\u2019s increasing presence but could also affect British industry and supply chains.<\/p>\n

He said he would share those concerns \u201cin a constructive spirit\u201d with von der Leyen. \u201cThe other issues you discuss, they are for another day,\u201d he said of rejoining the bloc.<\/p>\n

Burnham said the UK had considerable support among EU member states for its position on the \u201cmade in Europe\u201d legislation, which threatens to scupper ongoing negotiations about the reset<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEurope\u2019s argument is not with us. We both suffer the same effects as other countries, particularly steel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe are making the argument we are not your enemies here … we are not the problem. \u2018Made in Europe\u2019 is dealing with a different problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also said delicate UK\/Ireland supply chains could end up being \u201ccollateral damage\u201d of any disagreement with the EU.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s work towards a trusted partner approach that doesn\u2019t cause a problem where there wasn\u2019t a problem and where we have common cause,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In his speech to the UN on Tuesday night, Burnham will reflect on the 10 years since Brexit and say the UK needs to be more clear-eyed about the risks to its democratic system.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m reflecting on that last decade,\u201d he told reporters on his plane. \u201cWhat we\u2019ve experienced is when that turbulence comes, when outside actors seek to manipulate, to distort facts, influence the British democratic process.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing into the next decade we need to be clear-eyed about that and become stronger and more on the front foot about challenging that.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps Britain can say we have experienced some of the turbulence before others in terms of the politics of recent times. We need to be clearer where outside forces, our enemies, are trying to manipulate that opinion and feeling to serve their interests, not ours.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham has opened the door to fighting the next election on the UK rejoining the EU, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-778852","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\/778852","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=778852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}