Is Andy Burnham drawing some clear red lines between himself and Keir Starmer? The Manchester Mayor – who is reportedly weighing up a bid to challenge the Prime Minister for the Labour leadership – has shared his outright dissatisfaction over the consequences of Brexit.
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‘I hope the UK rejoins the EU in my lifetime’ – Andy Burnham
Speaking at the sidelines of the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool this week, the former government minister tore chunks out of the ill-fated referendum which saw the UK leave the EU back in 2016, and highlighted the damage it had done to the national economy.
Burnham openly referred to Brexit as a ‘disaster’, and blamed it for making aspirations ‘harder to achieve’ in Britain. He revealed his wish to see the UK rejoin the continental trading bloc at some point – but remained pragmatic about how long that could take.
“I want to rejoin the EU. I hope it happens in my lifetime… I believe in the unions of all kinds. The union of the UK. The European Union, and the benefits it brought this country. Trade unions… People prosper more when they’re part of unions. That’s my belief, and I’ll say it clearly.”
Look at the last decade – shouldn’t we start calling out the disaster that Brexit has been more directly? I think we should. We’ve been stuck now with sluggish growth, and all of our aspirations now are harder to achieve as a country. We are in a bad position, the growth isn’t there.” | Andy Burnham
Manchester Mayor brands Brexit ‘a disaster’
Burnham also went one further, and encouraged voters to ‘confidently call out’ the people who pushed for a divorce from the EU and hold them to account. He also noted that Brexit had ‘weakened immigration control’ in the UK, highlighting the short-sightedness of our current agreements.
“The people who called for [Brexit] took us to a place where we feel like nothing works properly anymore. They need holding to account. I don’t think there’s a prospect of rejoining the EU any time soon, but I do think we should be honest with people, and call out what’s put us here.”
“It’s not just on the economy and growth. It’s immigration. Immigration control has weakened as a result of Brexit. We’ve replaced short term immigration from the EU with long term immigration from outside the EU. We must be confident in calling out Leave campaigners.” | Andy Burnham