Burnham questions Brexit, says Britain should consider options for EU ties

U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he would lay out options the country had in terms of its long-term future with the bloc, in the coming weeks, as he argued that Britain’s exit from the European Union (‘Brexit’) in 2016 had caused more harm than good. The move is significant as it could potentially open the door to a full-scale reconsideration of whether to reverse Brexit.

“I cannot say to you truthfully, that where we are is good enough,” Mr. Burnham said, adding, ”Brexit has done more harm than good.” The U.K. Prime Minister was speaking to addressing the Labour Party’s annual conference in Liverpool, his first as party’s leader.

The Prime Minister said the U.K. needed higher growth, as he promised to share the various options that Britain had in terms of its long term relationship with the EU, ahead of a U.K.-EU Summit later this year. He blamed Brexit for a loss in control over immigration and undocumented border crossings (i.e., via the English Channel on small boats), while emphasising that net migration was down more than 80% since its peak during the Boris Johnson administration.

The Labour Party is split on how much integration the U.K. should seek with the E.U. following Brexit. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who is also now a member of the U.K. House of Lords, had said that the Labour party should put rejoining the EU on its election manifesto for 2029.

Others, such as Britain’s trade minister Jonathan Reynolds, have taken a more cautious approach. He warned on Sunday that the “constitutional questions” raised by Britain’s relationship with the EU were causing uncertainty for businesses, as per a report in Politico.

During his remarks, Mr. Burnham pushed back against calls for independence by the ‘nations’ (i.e., Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) of the U.K. Referring to the comment by Scottish First Minister John Swinney that he (Mr. Burnham) would be the “last” Prime Minister of the U.K., Mr Burnham said,

“Not the last Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, rather the first to rewire it to make it work for all people and places.” Mr. Burnham emphasised his desire to take power from Whitehall (the nerve centre of British bureaucracy in London) and distribute it across the nations and regions of the U.K.

AI to be at centre of U.K. G20 presidency

The Prime Minister said AI would be “centre stage” in the U.K.’s G20 agenda in 2027 when it holds the group’s presidency. The focus would be twofold; harnessing the benefits of AI while also focusing on safety. The Prime Minister’s remarks come as  leading AI companies and voices have warned that AI could be out of human control in the next few years , with an increasing number of reports of AI breaching secure systems.  

Mr. Burnham also pushed for electoral reform in the U.K. , as he announced the setting up of a cross-party national commission on electoral reform.

“We will all have failed in our public duties if we carry on as we are and open the door of Number 10 to a divisive government on less than 30% of the vote or less,” he said.

While he did not explicitly mention proportional representation (PR) in his speech, Mr. Burnham has, for some years now, backed the idea of doing away with Britain’s first-past-the-post system to PR.

The bulks of Mr. Burnham’s speech was focused on domestic priorities. These included greater public control of Britain’s water utilities; being “more pragmatic” about the U.K.’s oil in the North Sea; changes to the U.K.’s pension system; creating a social care service comparable to the National Health Service (NHS) and creating parity between vocational training and academic qualifications in the education system.