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Andy Burnham’s domestic revolution could unobtrusively pull Britain closer to Europe
Andy Burnham appears more sympathetic towards the EU than Keir Starmer. Photograph: WPA/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Andy Burnham appears more sympathetic towards the EU than Keir Starmer. Photograph: WPA/Getty Images Andy Burnham’s domestic revolution could unobtrusively pull Britain closer to Europe The new PM talks less about the continent than his predecessor, but his agenda is more closely aligned with the EU’s Don’t get This Is Europe delivered to your inbox? Sign up here E urope’s leaders queued up this week to welcome Andy Burnham as Britain’s seventh prime minister since the Brexit vote – all expressing the hope that his tenure would continue the thaw in EU-UK relations initiated by his predecessor, Keir Starmer. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission chief, said she was looking forward to strengthening cross-Channel ties, adding that a “very good” first discussion had confirmed a common commitment to “bringing the EU and UK closer and closer”. France’s Emmanuel Macron said he hoped for a deeper relationship that gave “new momentum to the partnership” between the EU and the UK. Germany’s Friedrich Merz said he, too, was looking forward to forging an even closer bond. But what, realistically and concretely, can Europe expect from the Liverpudlian dubbed the “King of the North”? How might his approach to the bloc differ from Starmer’s much-trumpeted ( and as often maligned ) “reset” in post-Brexit relations? We know practically nothing about what Burnham’s foreign policy might look like: his priorities, as Paul Taylor noted , are famously domestic. We do know his baseline instincts are pro-European: he argued against the “isolation” of Brexit in 2016. Last year, he said he hoped Britain might rejoin the EU during his lifetime . This year, campaigning for the byelection he had to fight and win in order to become PM, in a constituency estimated to have voted 65% leave, he carefully clarified his position . Brexit “has been damaging”, he said, but, he added, “I also believe the last thing we should do right now is rerun those arguments.” His aim was to “unify the country”, not divide it further, so he was “not proposing that the UK considers rejoining the EU”. But even if his headline focus is on the UK, Burnham knows Britain’s “economic stagnation, declining relative living standards and latent social discontent” are at least partly down to the huge Brexit hit to UK trade and investment, Taylor wrote. “Even without the compelling security and geopolitical reasons for rapprochement with the EU,” he argued, “closer engagement with Britain’s main export market would be a no-brainer to deliver healthier growth.” But how exactly, given the immovable red lines laid down in the Labour party’s last election manifesto – no single market, no customs union, no freedom of movement – might Burnham go about it? Starmer’s longed-for “reset” was all about security cooperation and easing Brexit trade barriers. Ironically, Burnham’s focu
