Andy Burnham is reportedly going to edge Labour closer to rejoining the European Union.
On Tuesday afternoon, Burnham will address the Labour Party conference for the first time as prime minister, and is expected to vow to be honest with voters about his aim to change Britain.
According to reports, part of Burnham’s plan for the country is to ultimately rejoin the EU.
The Independent reports that the PM is “building the case to put rejoin in the manifesto at the next election.”
Ministers have told the publication that it is now a question of “not if but how” a rejoin pledge is included in the next Labour manifesto.
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Burnham has always been a vocal critic of Brexit and openly called for Britain to rejoin the EU before he became prime minister. Whilst the Labour leader has since toned down his anti-Brexit rhetoric, he has also refused to rule out including rejoin in the party’s next manifesto, something senior Labour figures such as Sadiq Khan have called for.
In his conference speech on Tuesday, Burnham is expected to make reference to the “drift and division” sparked by Brexit as he lays out a “very clear path for the country.”
Speaking to the Independent, a senior minister said there is a “lot of momentum around rejoining again.”
“The economic data is there and we are feeling more relaxed about talking about Brexit as being a failure,” they added.
Another said rejoining was essential for growing the British economy, and that “from the discussions taking place, it is not ‘if’ but ‘how’ we do it.”
Keir Starmer’s government had set out red lines of not rejoining the customs union, single market or EU as a whole, and also ruled out engaging in the bloc’s freedom movement.
But it seems increasingly likely that Burnham’s government will move towards ditching these red lines.
During his speech on Monday, foreign secretary Ed Miliband told the conference that Britain’s future lies in a “stronger and deeper” partnership with the EU.
“This is our continent, and if there is one lesson that I have seen demonstrated to me again and again in this job, it is this: Europe is not just our geography, but so much more,” he said.
“And on economics, on defence, on security, I say to this conference: our future lies in a stronger, deeper partnership with the European Union.”
Meanwhile, chancellor John Healey said “Boris Johnson’s Brexit” was one of the key reasons this government does not have as much money to spend as New Labour did when it came into power in the 1990s.