Andy Burnham has warned ministers not to express their opinions about how the government should approach Brexit, as he argued that the Conservatives’ deal with Brussels had been more extreme than that promised in the 2016 referendum. In another series of announcements connected to his plan to seek closer links with the EU, Burnham told ministers at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday that the current deal was a bad one, before writing to frontbenchers setting out his hopes to address this. Brexit was also the main subject of Burnham’s exchanges with Kemi Badenoch at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, with the prime minister saying the UK had been “paralysed” by the lack of a Conservative plan after the vote.
A Downing Street summary of the cabinet meeting put his comments about Brexit above even those concerning the budget, which the chancellor, John Healey, was to deliver soon afterwards. The letter set out Burnham’s two-stage approach to reforming Brexit, beginning with any initial changes that will stay within Labour’s 2024 manifesto – which committed to remaining outside the EU’s customs union and single market, and not reinstating freedom of movement – a process that will formally kick off when the prime minister attends a European summit next month. Anything more substantial would need to wait until after the next election, with Burnham saying he wanted a discussion on what this might entail.
It is a harder Brexit than was promised at the EU referendum. Beyond it, we will need to consider the UK’s long-term relationship with the EU as part of our 10-year plan. I will set out the next steps for this process around the summit.
Any future relationship depends on practical arrangements that are realistic for both sides, and responsive to this new reality.” Any fundamental changes in the relationship “would be for the public to decide and a matter for the next parliament”, he wrote, adding: “This is government policy to which cabinet collective responsibility applies.” Challenged by Badenoch at PMQs about his Brexit plans, Burnham reiterated his criticism of the current deal, saying the UK “was paralysed by the party opposite” in the wake of the referendum. In response, Badenoch said that Burnham had been using freedoms allowed under Brexit, for example, the ability to remove VAT from energy bills: “What he should be saying is: ‘Thank you.’”
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