{"id":796266,"date":"2026-10-08T20:00:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T20:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/796266\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T20:00:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T20:00:16","slug":"french-minister-invites-uk-to-come-all-the-way-back-to-the-eu-brexit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/796266\/","title":{"rendered":"French minister invites UK to \u2018come all the way back\u2019 to the EU | Brexit"},"content":{"rendered":"

The French finance minister has invited the UK to \u201ccome all the way back\u201d to the European Union<\/a> after Andy Burnham raised the prospect of a new referendum to reverse Brexit.<\/p>\n

Roland Lescure was speaking after the prime minister used his Labour conference speech<\/a> to pledge that the government would explore closer ties with the bloc at a summit later this year.<\/p>\n

He used subsequent interviews to spell out how wide-ranging his consideration of Britain\u2019s future with Brussels could be because Brexit<\/a> had caused \u201cmore harm than good\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked about Burnham\u2019s comments, Lescure told the BBC: \u201cBritish people decided, and that\u2019s obviously their 100% right, and if they\u2019re willing to come back, they will have to decide. But what I can tell them is: come back, anytime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lescure said he wanted Britain back in the union to face emerging global threats together.<\/p>\n

\"WillWill they, won\u2019t they? EU flirts with UK rejoining – The Latest<\/p>\n

Burnham said last week that the government\u2019s options included keeping the current arrangements in relation to the UK\u2019s relationship with the EU, seeking a customs union, returning to the single market, or going \u201call the way\u201d with full membership.<\/p>\n

He said ministers would examine \u201cwhat is doable\u201d and the \u201cpros and cons\u201d of each option.<\/p>\n

The prime minister is travelling to Germany for talks with the chancellor, Friedrich Merz, whose government has been supportive of Burnham\u2019s suggestion that the UK could explore closer links with the EU.<\/p>\n

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Burnham and Merz are expected to agree on a deal for closer security cooperation against cyber-attacks on European countries but the two will also discuss UK-EU relations.<\/p>\n

Lescure also responded to comments by Burnham that EU rules to help European manufacturers would damage the UK.<\/p>\n

\"AndyAndy Burnham fights tears as he speaks of his dad at Labour conference \u2013 video<\/p>\n

British government sources warned days earlier that the \u201cEU reset\u201d summit would be delayed again unless the bloc agreed to discuss legislation that could lock British business out of parts of EU industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cCome back, and you\u2019ll be at the table, and we discuss all these things together,\u201d Lescure said.<\/p>\n

Nigel Farage has claimed Burnham has given him \u201cthe biggest boost in my career\u201d by reviving the Brexit debate<\/a>, which the Reform UK leader said had reopened a \u201chuge flank\u201d to his party.<\/p>\n

Dismissing polls showing that as much as 59% of the public favoured rejoining the EU, Farage said: \u201cOf course they do, until you tell them it\u2019ll cost 25bn quid a year, until you tell him it\u2019ll mean joining Schengen [the area of Europe that has open borders], until he tells them it will mean actually having to recommit to joining the euro.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The French finance minister has invited the UK to \u201ccome all the way back\u201d to the European Union…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-796266","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\/796266","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=796266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}