Prime Minister Andy Burnham said on Wednesday that Britain should consider options for its future relationship with the European Union, including rejoining the bloc. He had just told the Labour Party's annual conference that Brexit had "done more harm than good."
Speaking to the BBC, Burnham said Britain should examine different models for its long-term relationship with Europe and decide which offered the best way forward. He didn't commit to one. Instead, he laid out a menu of choices.
The Options on the Table
"We could stay as we are. That's definitely an option, if people think this is the right place to stay," Burnham told the broadcaster. "We could look at what George Osborne has said about a customs union. We could look at what the Liberal Democrats said at their conference about single market, or we could go all the way."
The ideas come from different corners of British politics. Osborne, a former Conservative finance minister, has argued that Britain should pursue a customs union with the EU. The Liberal Democrats have called for Britain to rejoin the bloc's single market. Burnham said officials should assess the options based on "what is doable" and the advantages and disadvantages of each.
Sovereignty Watch
Britain voted to leave the European Union in 2016, ending more than four decades of membership. Ten years have now passed. The vote triggered years of political upheaval as successive governments grappled with its economic and diplomatic consequences.
Burnham is reopening the question at the top of government. He has previously said he would like Britain to rejoin the EU in his lifetime. Wednesday's interview went beyond a personal aspiration: it framed rejoining as one end of a range of policy choices a sitting prime minister is prepared to examine.
His language on Brexit was blunt. "I am very clear, and I will say this bluntly: Brexit has caused more harm than good," Burnham said. "So the question is, what do we do about that?"
The Political Timetable
Earlier on Tuesday, Burnham said he would use a November UK-EU summit to outline options for Britain's long-term relationship with the bloc. The government now has a fixed date to present its thinking to European counterparts. Burnham replaced Keir Starmer in July, and he has argued that Britain can't afford another decade of uncertainty over the issue.
The range of options he named matters. Staying as things are, a customs union, single-market membership and full rejoining each imply a different division of decision-making between London and Brussels. Burnham hasn't said which he prefers, only that officials should test each against what is achievable.
Why This Matters:
The UK-EU summit in November will be the first occasion on which Burnham sets out options to the EU itself. From a centre-right perspective, the central questions are democratic accountability and sovereignty: each model he mentioned, from a customs union to full membership, would shift decision-making between Westminster and Brussels by a different degree. Voters backed leaving in 2016, and any move back toward the bloc raises the question of how much say they would have in the outcome. Burnham's own test, "what is doable," puts the trade-offs at the centre of the debate. Whether the British public is asked to weigh in on them remains an open question.