Burnham's UK-EU deal moves ahead as cabinet splits on rejoining the EU

A deal before the summit

Andy Burnham, who replaced Keir Starmer as prime minister, has pushed for closer relations with Brussels. A new UK-EU agreement is due to be ratified at a special summit on 20 November. Its central element is a sanitary and phytosanitary arrangement that would remove most routine checks on food and farm products moving in either direction, with the UK agreeing to align with EU standards. Northern Ireland could benefit most, since checks on goods have long been a point of friction between unionist and nationalist politicians. The package also covers a youth mobility scheme and carbon trading rules, and its text describes the UK as a "trusted partner" of the EU.

Burnham has framed the deals in terms of household bills, telling the Sunday Mirror:

“This summit will show what we can achieve when we work together, but it doesn't need to be the end of our ambition.”

Cabinet divisions

Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, has voiced caution about revisiting Brexit while still backing closer ties. Her Wigan seat voted heavily to leave in 2016, and she counts among the most cautious figures in the cabinet on reversing that decision. Speaking on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, she said nobody wanted to rerun the same argument.

“I do not believe that anybody wants to repeat circular arguments about in or out, leave or remain.”

Asked whether she wanted Britain to go back in, she replied:

“I don't know if that's a choice we have.”

Nandy also acknowledged that the existing deal fell short of what voters were promised, and she said the government must weigh trade-offs in a conversation with the public. Several cabinet ministers privately fear that reopening the Brexit question could benefit Nigel Farage's Reform UK, the Guardian reported.

Barnier on a return

Michel Barnier, the EU's former chief Brexit negotiator, said the bloc's door was open to the UK and that a return could be quicker than the original exit talks. He suggested Britain could rejoin within as little as four years, while cautioning that the £5bn annual budget rebate negotiated by Margaret Thatcher would probably be unavailable. Barnier also ruled out cherry-picking among the single market's four freedoms of goods, people, services and capital, which would mean accepting free movement. He stressed that rejoining would not carry a special fee, though Britain would pay the usual contribution every member state makes to the budget. He added that any return would be the UK's own sovereign choice. Barnier was also asked by the BBC about reports of a 150,000 cap on Europeans who could come to Britain under a youth mobility scheme.

Background and the calendar

The UK voted to leave in June 2016, and Theresa May triggered Article 50 in March 2017. Britain formally left the bloc on 31 January 2020, and the departure meant detaching the UK from 600 international agreements. Burnham is due at the European Political Community summit in Dublin on Thursday, 12 November, and Downing Street expects him to use the gathering to push the reset deal forward and to hold early talks with a range of European leaders.

The Brexit reset meeting in Brussels on 20 November is expected to confirm agreements on agriculture and food, emissions trading and youth experience visas.

Burnham's position

Burnham has said the UK should weigh options ranging from the status quo to joining a customs union or single market, or rejoining the bloc altogether, and he first called for that debate in September. For the current parliament he is holding to Labour's manifesto red lines, which rule out a return to the customs union or single market. He has indicated that the wider conversation about the long-term relationship could come after the next election. Questions about that relationship are expected to be raised when Burnham meets counterparts in Dublin on Thursday, 12 November.