u/TurboSardine

Higher costs on business incoming. Just what we need 🙄

Secession from this character’s ability to influence the UK polity is a Brexit dividend.

The EU has nothing good to offer Britain.

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/andy-burnham-second-referendum-eu-labour-conference-5jkl058mx

The prime minister said he was weighing up going ‘all the way’ in rejoining the bloc, as well as the customs union and single market

Andy Burnham has said Labour’s next election manifesto could include a commitment to hold an in-out referendum on rejoining the EU.

The prime minister said he was not “leaping to a referendum”, but said that if public opinion was “pointing towards” rejoining the EU he could commit to a vote.

He also declined to rule out skipping a referendum entirely and fighting the next general election on a promise to rejoin the EU.

In his first Labour Party conference speech as leader, the prime minister said Brexit had done “more harm than good”, and promised to set out the options to the country around the time of a UK-EU summit, which he said would be in November.

Blaming Brexit for a decade of drift and division, Burnham told ITV News: “I can’t avoid the Europe question if I’m to put out a credible ten-year plan for Britain.”

Asked whether that could mean sticking to the status quo, he said: “I don’t know what Europe will say about the different options.

“We’ve got to look at where we are, where they are and see what is a realistic and viable approach in all of the areas that we mentioned and then open up a conversation about it.”

He said his “instincts” were that “it is better to be closer” to the EU “with all of the threats that we see around the world”.

He insisted that he was not “leaping towards” any one option, telling the BBC: “I think we’d have to see where the options fell out, what people feel about them, and then depending on what people seem to be pointing towards, what we then do.”

But pressed on whether he could promise an in-out referendum after the next election, he said: “Yeah, things are possible.”

He acknowledged that “we have to proceed with great care” because “referendums do damage” and “divide households and communities”.

Challenged over whether he could skip another referendum and put rejoining the EU in the manifesto, Burnham told Channel 4: “I wouldn’t rule anything out at this moment.”

Before entering Downing Street, Burnham said he wanted to see the UK back in the EU within his lifetime.

Asked on Sky News whether he stood by that, he said: “I said in my lifetime and I’ve said that I’m not going to pull back from that.”

Earlier on Wednesday, the prime minister said the range of options included going “all the way” with a proposal to rejoin the bloc.

French president Emmanuel Macron and Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sanchez, speaking at a joint press conference in Madrid, welcomed his remarks.

Macron said it was “very good news” for both the UK and Europe, quipping: “Welcome back.”

Sanchez said Brexit was a “huge loss” for the UK and the EU project, and that Spain would “open its arms” to the UK if it decided to rejoin.

Geraldine Scott, Assistant Political Editor

Wednesday September 30 2026, 5.45pm, The Times

When even the French mainstream are saying this…

Nothing says “Britain should rejoin” quite like scrapping the veto and sending the bill to the net contributors.

FWIW, Burnham’s political naivety is such that he could say anything.