Andy Burnham has confirmed he is open to reversing Brexit, insisting he could go “all the way” in proposing to rejoin the European Union.
The prime minister, who has blamed Brexit for a decade of drift and division, said he would look at the “pros and cons” of all options and is considering the UK’s future relationship with Brussels.
In his first Labour Party conference speech as leader, the prime minister said Britain’s decision to leave the EU had done “more harm than good” and promised to set out the options to the country around the time of a UK-EU summit later this year.
Telling the BBC he did not want to leave the issue “hanging”, he said he wanted to be clear on “where we want Britain to go in the next decade”.
Asked whether he wanted the UK to rejoin the bloc, he told the Today programme he wanted to “look at the options”.
“We could stay as we are. That’s definitely an option, if people think this is the right place to stay,” he told the programme.
“We could look at what (former Conservative chancellor) George Osborne has said about a customs union, we could look at what the Liberal Democrats said at their conference about the single market or we could go all the way.”
Labour’s election manifesto in 2024 ruled out joining a customs union, going back into the single market or allowing the return of freedom of movement with the EU.
But Mr Burnham has indicated he is prepared to recommend going beyond those red lines in future.
“There are clearly options that need to be considered, and we have to look at what is doable and what would be the pros and cons of each,” he told the BBC.
Giving an extraordinary first Labour conference speech as prime minister, a tearful Mr Burnham also vowed to deliver a “new Britain” with plans to scrap the pensions triple lock, build a new social care service and overhaul the voting system.
He pledged to end the “wrong direction” of the country since Margaret Thatcher’s reforms of the 1980s, which he said had delivered deindustrialisation, deregulation, privatisation, austerity and Brexit, resulting in a “country run for vested interests, not in the public interest”.
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He also promised to bring water, housing and energy into public ownership and confirmed his plans for a free national social care service on a par with the NHS, to be funded with changes to the triple lock guarantee on pensions.
Speaking about Britain’s relationship with the EU, he said: ““Brexit hasn’t given us control. We’ve lost some of the control we had over our economy, as a decade of low growth has put us in a weaker position. And we’ve lost some of our control over immigration”.
Mr Burnham said he would set out “options” on UK-EU relations later this year, telling members that Britain must decide on its “long-term relationship” with the bloc.
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