Andy Burnham‘s EU reset has failed his own ‘Makerfield test’, with voters saying they want the Government alone to decide key policy.
A survey of the Prime Minister’s constituents found that on ten different issues only a tiny minority thought the UK should follow decisions made by international institutions.
Yet he is working on a deal, being unveiled on November 20, that will align Britain with a series of EU rules.
When Mr Burnham won the Makerfield by-election in June, he said he wanted his Leave-voting constituency to be a ‘touchstone’ – with every government policy or announcement having to meet a ‘Makerfield test’ showing they improve residents’ life and work.
He said: ‘A Makerfield test at the heart of British politics will make sure that the places Westminster has neglected will get fairness.’
But polling by Survation for Britain Unbound, a cross-party campaign group for a sovereign and independent UK, found his policies would not meet the test.
Voters in Makerfield were asked who should decide UK policy on ten different issues. To avoid simply dividing those polled into Remainers and Leavers, the survey did not mention the EU, but instead sought to test core attitudes on where decisions are made.
In every case, a clear majority of those polled said policy should be decided by the Government alone.
Andy Burnham’s EU reset has failed his own ‘Makerfield test’, with voters saying they want the Government alone to decide key policy. The Prime Minister pictured on Monday
A survey of the Prime Minister’s constituents found that on ten different issues only a tiny minority thought the UK should follow decisions made by international institutions (stock image of Burnham in Makerfield)
Some 80 per cent said policy for state aid for regional development should be decided by the UK, while 75 per cent said the same for refusing criminals entry to the UK and 78 per cent for setting VAT rates.
Only between 12 per cent and 2 per cent thought the UK should follow decisions made by international institutions on the same issues.
Britain Unbound said the voters provided a ‘stunning rejection’ of the PM’s ‘expected transfer of powers away from democratically elected MPs in Britain to unelected EU institutions in Brussels’.
Jonathan Hinder, Labour MP for Pendle and Clitheroe, said: ‘Voters in Labour’s heartlands… do not support signing up to rules we have no say over.’
Lord Redwood, the Tory peer and co-chairman of Britain Unbound, said: ‘Makerfield voters reject giving away our hard-won right to self-government to the EU.’
It came as Labour MP Chris Ward, one of the architects of Sir Keir Starmer’s red lines on Brexit – which rule out a return to the EU single market, customs union, or freedom of movement – has called for the PM to ditch them at the next election.