Mandate-less British PM Burnham Considering Going ‘All the Way’ in Reversing Brexit
British Prime Minsiter Andy Burnham has publicly stated that he is considering reversing Brexit and rejoining the European Union “all the way,” despite having no electoral mandate to do so.
On the sidelines of the Labour Party conference in Liverpool on Wednesday, Prime Minsiter Burnham continued his apparent A/B testing for a popular agenda, while seeking to give his fledgling government an air of legitimacy. Although Burnham initially signalled he would stick to the 2024 Labour election pledge to move past the Brexit debate, he suggested this week that the issue is now up for debate.
After being installed as Prime Minister in July without standing in the general election and parachuted into parliament on just over 25,000 votes, Burnham is now openly contemplating overturning the will of over 17.4 million voters in the 2016 referendum.
Appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Burnham said per The Times: “We could stay as we are. That’s definitely an option, if people think this is the right place to stay.”
“We could look at what [former Conservative chancellor] George Osborne has said about a customs union, we could look at what the Liberal Democrats said at their conference about the single market, or we could go all the way.”
His comments came after he told supporters at the Labour Party conference that Brexit had been a “disaster” for the UK and that he would look to reset ties with Brussels.
However, the PM appears to be waiting for a strategy to gain popular support before committing to any one stance, telling the conference: “I will see if we can find consensus around one which will give us clarity about our position, and the future of the continent we live in.”
The Brexit referendum was the single largest democratic mandate for anything in British history. Over 17 million people voted to leave the European Union compared to just nine million who voted for the present Labour government.
Yet despite that weight of votes, Burnham has even said he’s considering telling the British people they need to vote again, by re-running the referendum. The strategy is a well-worn one when it comes to democratic decisions about the European Union, with nations frequently told to vote and vote again when they give what liberal politicians think is the ‘wrong’ answer.
The Daily Telegraph reports he said the next Labour election manifesto (platform) could either include a pledge to hold a new referendum, or an outright promise to rejoin without even having a vote on it.
Yet democratic mandate aside, Brexit has become fragile after years of what proponents have argued is deliberate wrecking by the dominant ‘Remainer’ camps within Tory and now Labour governments who never wanted Britain to leave in the first place, and had no interest in trying to make a success out of the opportunities independence brought.
Potentially huge moments like crafting a large-scale trade agreement with the United States a decade ago or actually reducing immigration — rather than allowing immigration to soar to record levels, were both wrecked.
Critics of the rejoin campaign have also noted that, in addition to undermining democracy in Britain, it has also cast doubt over whether it would meaningfully help bringing the British economy back to life after years of stagnation starting during the Chinese coronavirus lockdowns and the energy crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine.
Wolfson Economics Prize-winning economist Roger Bootle argued this week that the UK’s economic woes were not necessarily a result of Brexit, noting that domestic factors have played a significant role, including Labour policies on taxation, workers’ rights, and minimum wage.
Writing for the Daily Telegraph, Bootle also pointed out that the major players on the continent were not faring much better than the UK, with Germany growing by just 1 per cent over the past year, compared to 1.2 per cent for the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, France, in the throes of a debt crisis, is barely out of a recession, with just 0.5 per cent growth over the past year.
Furthermore, the economist warned that if the UK rejoined the EU, Brussels would likely impose punitive measures on Britain for leaving in the first place, such as increasing its financial contributions to the bloc, particularly in light of the hardball tactics displayed by EU leadership toward Britain over the past decade.
Bottle also pointed out that rejoining the EU would mean that the UK would have to give up the trade deals it has already negotiated and give up any hope of a bespoke deal with the United States, or the Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.
It would also mean British businesses would once again have to adapt to new regulations, and critical 21st-century industries, such as Artificial Intelligence, would fall under Brussels’ purview, likely putting the UK at a disadvantage compared to free actors like the U.S. and China.
In addition to the potential economic costs, rejoining the bloc would also mean that Britain would be subject to its latest migration rules, including the recent pact that mandates all member states share the burden of illegal immigration or face hefty fines, meaning that the UK would be required to take thousands of illegals from other EU countries into Britain. This could imperil Burnham’s support base in the north of England, which largely backed Brexit because they wanted to take back control of their borders.
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