German Chancellor tells Burnham he desires the UK ‘nearer and nearer’ to the EU as they maintain talks in Berlin… and French minister urges PM to go ‘all the best way’ on reversing Brexit

Andy Burnham was urged to get ‘closer and closer’ to the EU today as he held talks with the German Chancellor.

Friedrich Merz pledged to do ‘anything we can’ to bring the UK ‘back to Europe’ as he hosted the PM in Berlin. 

For his part, Mr Burnham highlighted the looming summit with the EU on deepening relations, insisting ‘growth comes from co-operation’. 

The leaders’ first face-to-face talks are expected to focus on defence and security but are bound to cover Mr Burnham’s ambitions for a ‘reset’ with Brussels and the controversial ‘Made in Europe’ rules threatening to hit UK exports. 

Earlier, French finance minister Roland Lescure hailed Mr Burnham opening the door to a bid to rejoin the bloc, urging him to go ‘all the way’.

He told the BBC the UK could ‘come back any time’, suggesting it could help solve problems over Brussels’ plans to restrict imports.

Last week Mr Burnham used his Labour conference speech to revisit the issue of EU membership.

The premier said he wanted to explore ‘options’ and floated the prospect of including a commitment to rejoin in the next manifesto. He refused to say whether there would need to be another referendum. 

Speaking alongside Mr Burnham at the start of an economic roundtable today, Mr Merz said he was ‘personally extremely happy’ the question of Britain’s future status was being reopened.

‘From our German side, I can assure you that we will do anything what we can do to bring the UK closer and closer back to Europe, to the European continent, to the European Union,’ he said.

‘And I’m really happy to have you here today with this clear message from your side and with this clear answer from our side.’

Mr Burnham said: ‘The time has come to think more seriously about growth, and obviously we know growth can come from that closer relationship.

‘We have a UK-EU summit in front of us before the end of the year and I think it is important that we can show that growth comes from co-operation, as I believe it can do, as well as facing joint challenges together.’

He continued: ‘It feels to me that the world as it is, is bringing us closer together. It’s making us more closely aligned.

‘We already are very close partners, but UK and Germany becomes a more important axis as we go into the next next period.’

Asked by the BBC about Mr Burnham’s initiative, Mr Lescure replied that his advice would be to ‘come all the way’. 

He stressed it was up to the British public to decide but they could ‘come back, any time’.

Mr Lescure said: ‘British people decided, and that’s obviously their 100 per cent right, and if they’re willing to come back, they will have to decide.

‘But what I can tell them is: come back, anytime.’

Pressed on whether the UK could be included in the Made in Europe scheme, Mr Lescure said: ‘Come back, and you’ll be at the table, and we discuss all these things together.’ 

The PM and EU commission chief Ursula von der Leyen are set to discuss ways of deepening trade links at a summit next month. 

Mr Burnham’s comments on the EU have been welcomed by French President Emmanuel Macron and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who declared he would welcome the UK back with ‘open arms’.

In his Labour conference speech, the Prime Minister said Brexit had done ‘more harm than good’ while stopping short of any concrete commitments.

He told ITV News: ‘I can’t avoid the Europe question if I’m to put out a credible 10-year plan for Britain.’

He said his ‘instincts’ were that ‘it is better to be closer’ to the EU ‘with all of the threats that we see around the world’.

In Berlin, Mr Burnham also said the UK is ‘open’ to Germany joining an international programme to build the next generation of fighter aircraft.

He said: ‘We are talking today about defence collaboration, and I’ve indicated to the Chancellor, in our discussion prior to this ratification, our openness to Germany joining Gcap, the next generation of fighter aircraft.

‘And that is something that we seek to progress in the coming period, working with our partners Italy and Japan, in relation to that as well.’

GCAP, the Global Combat Air Programme, is a joint project between the UK, Italy and Japan to develop a sixth-generation fighter jet.