Burnham’s EU push reopens Labour’s Brexit divide

LIVERPOOL, England — Andy Burnham is planning to go big on Brexit. For his party, the question is: How big?

The U.K. prime minister is now widely expected to use his annual speech to Labour’s party conference in Liverpool on Tuesday to talk up closer ties with the EU.

But Burnham will have to strike a delicate balance between those in his party who want to walk back Brexit — and those who want to make peace with it.

Hours ahead of Burnham’s speech, cabinet members were far from speaking with one voice on the issue.

Lucy Powell, Labour’s deputy leader, said at the POLITICO Pub on the sidelines of the conference that going beyond EU plans inherited from Keir Starmer for a reset of relations was “not possible nor desirable.”

“I think there are ways we can improve our links on defense and security, but beyond that, I’m not going to speculate,” she added.

Her comments came after Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds on Sunday warned that “constitutional questions” around Britain’s EU relationship were causing “uncertainty” for business.

Also speaking at the POLITICO Pub, he warned against moves to join the customs union — which he said would involve the U.K. having to “accept a whole range of alignment on regulatory issues.”

Yet Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told delegates from the main Labour conference stage that the U.K’s future lay in a “deeper” partnership with the EU.

“Europe is not just our geography, but so much more,” he said. “It is how we pursue our values from climate to the Middle East. It’s how we pursue our interests from trade to defense. It’s where we build and protect our alliances … I say to this conference, our future lies in a stronger, deeper partnership with the European Union.”

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, meanwhile, said the U.K.’s return to the EU is inevitable and that Burnham should start preparing the British public for that reality.

Further and faster

Burnham’s recently appointed EU Relations Minister Hamish Falconer told Labour conference delegates on Monday that the prime minister wanted to go “further and faster” than his predecessor.

Falconer, a former hostage negotiator who served in Britain’s diplomatic corps before being elected to parliament in 2024, confirmed the public would “hear a bit from the prime minister” on the EU.

At a packed rally of Labour activists on Sunday, Stella Creasy, the MP who chairs the Labour Movement for Europe caucus urged Burnham to drop Keir Starmer’s “red lines” in negotiations with the bloc.

Starmer’s manifesto pledges rule out membership of the single market, customs union and free movement — and make a much closer deal with Brussels all-but impossible.

“Who starts a negotiation with a list of what you don’t want — apart from a toddler?” Creasy told her audience to rapturous applause — urging the government to instead draw up a “list of common goals” with the EU: “Let us say it proudly and clearly: drop the red lines now.”

Speaking at another event on Monday as news that Burnham was likely to address the issue filtered through conference, Creasy said that “what comes out tomorrow” should “set a plan of action” and amount to “more than warm words.”

Question of strategy

The divide is partly a disagreement over political strategy.

Labour figures disagree on whether relitigating Brexit is a good use of their political time. Proponents of a closer relationship say the issue is well-placed to enthuse and win back defectors to the Greens and Liberal Democrats. Skeptics say it will do more to turn off voters wary of well-worn debates and prime proponents of Brexit to accuse politicians of betraying the will of the people.

There are genuine economic disagreements, too. Whether the U.K. could prosper as a rule-taker inside the single market but outside the EU and whether its independent trade policy is worth sacrificing for a customs union are genuine matters of debate in the party.

Question marks also hang over how straightforward rejoining the bloc wholesale would be and whether the U.K. could get its old deal back.

Yet even if Burnham does stand up on Tuesday and promise a closer relationship with Europe, it could be easier said than done.

Current talks on Starmer’s relatively modest “reset” over an agriculture and food trade deal, youth visas, and coordination on emissions have proved harder to seal than anticipated.

A summit scheduled for July and postponed when Burnham took over is yet to get a new date, despite him having a sit-down meeting with the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the United Nations General Assembly last week.

An ever-expanding set of issues

The scope of talks has started to creep ever larger. London wants Brussels to give guarantees British businesses won’t be hit by new Made in Europe rules — while Brussels says it can’t be done.

“In the short term I’m quite gloomy. I think the summit which was supposed to happen in November may not happen at all,” Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform think-tank told a fringe event. “Unless someone is willing to compromise there may not be a summit at all this year, I hope I’m wrong on that.”

Jukka Salovaara, the EU’s recently-appointed ambassador in London stuck a more optimistic tone. “My own expectation is for a summit to happen in November,” he said.

“True that there are many issues that need to be solved but that’s why we are working on them and making sure that we take a step forward. Summits are never an end in itself, it’s always about what we achieve together and where we can go.”