Andy Burnham said that while Brexit has been ‘damaging’, he believes the last thing Britain should do is to rerun the argument about it – saying it would be stuck in a ‘permanent rut’
Andy Burnham has hosed down calls for Brexit to be reversed as battle lines are drawn in his expected leadership contest against Wes Streeting.
Mr Burnham, who is bidding to return to Parliament by becoming MP for Makerfield, said Britain would be stuck in a “permanent rut” if it gets stuck into arguing about Brexit again. The Greater Manchester Mayor made the comment after Mr Streeting floated the idea of rejoining the European Union, a decade after the 2016 referendum.
Mr Burnham told the Great Northern Investment Summit: “My view is that Brexit has been damaging, but I also believe the last thing we should do right now is rerun those arguments. Britain will be stuck in a permanent rut if we’re just constantly arguing and people are pulling away from each other.
“It is time, surely, isn’t it, to bring people back together, to focus on what we’ve got in common, to get the growth coming to all places? So it’s felt there that that is what we need in this moment.
“And it’s really important that whatever comes out of this by-election, there’s a more kind of unifying feeling about the change that we need to work towards. I am not proposing that the UK considers rejoining the EU.
“I respect the decision that was made at the referendum, and it’s going to undermine everything that I’ve said about strengthening democracy. If we don’t respect that vote, if we are to unify communities and the country, it means focusing on the big economic challenges we have.”
If Mr Burnham is successful, he is expected to launch a leadership challenge against Keir Starmer in the summer. Mr Streeting has also indicated he would stand if a race is triggered. The Prime Minister has said he is going nowhere, and Deputy PM David Lammy insisted there would be no timetable for departure.
But he will be painfully aware that Mr Burnham’s arrival in Parliament – if he wins the by-election – could cause problems for him. The Greater Manchester Mayor said he wants to “fix” the Labour Party after a difficult few years. Mr Burnham said: “I know why I’m standing. I know what I’m offering. I know what my party has offered in the past has simply not been good enough.
“The loss of faith that the voters across the North, so many of whom once saw us as their natural party, is our fault and nobody else. I want to help fix that, and I hope people will give me the chance to make that case.” He stated that a vote for him would be a “vote to change Labour because Labour needs to change”.
Mr Streeting’s remarks at the weekend have put Brexit at the centre of the by-election campaign – an unwelcome development for Mr Burnham.
At the Labour Party conference last year, Mr Burnham said: “I hope it (rejoining the EU) happens in my lifetime. I believe in the unions of all kinds. The union of the UK. The European Union, and the benefits it brought this country.
“Trade unions… People prosper more when they’re part of unions. That’s my belief, and I’ll say it clearly.”
On Saturday Mr Streeting said leaving the EU was a catastrophic mistake, stating: “It’s left us less wealthy, less powerful and less in control than at any point before the industrial revolution.” He said later in his speech that Britain should rejoining.
The former Health Secretary, who quit on Thursday with a brutal attack on Keir Starmer, said: “We need a new special relationship with the EU, because Britain’s future lies with Europe, and one day, one day, back in the European Union.”