Burnham rules out a rejoin push as Makerfield puts Labour’s Brexit divide under pressure

Andy Burnham has ruled out pushing for Britain to rejoin the European Union as he prepares for a possible return to Westminster through one of Labour’s most politically exposed seats.

The Greater Manchester mayor said Brexit had been “damaging”, but added that he was “not proposing that the UK considers rejoining the EU” and that the country should not rerun those arguments now. The intervention came as Burnham seeks Labour selection for the Makerfield by-election, a contest widely seen as a high-stakes test for both the party and his own national ambitions.

On its face, Burnham’s remark was a narrow statement about Europe. In practice, it said something larger about the constraints now shaping Labour politics. Makerfield is not a safe laboratory for abstract pro-European positioning. Reform UK is expected to target the seat heavily, and Labour figures have acknowledged that Brexit could be one of the issues used against Burnham during the campaign.

That helps explain why his comments mattered. Burnham was not announcing a new settlement of Labour’s Europe policy. He was signalling the limits of what a senior Labour figure believes can be argued in a Leave-leaning northern contest with Reform waiting to exploit any opening.

“Let’s fix our own country. Let’s get it working again. Let’s get it back to where people want it to be,” said the man who, just last year, said that he wanted to see Britain rejoin the EU in his lifetime. “My view is that Brexit has been damaging, but I also believe the last thing we should do right now is rerun those arguments.”

The pressure was sharpened by fresh comments from Wes Streeting, another potential contender in any future Labour leadership race, who said over the weekend that Britain should eventually seek to rejoin the EU. Burnham’s answer was a clear refusal to follow him onto that ground, at least in the current political moment.

“The biggest economic opportunity we have is on our doorstep,” the former health secretary said. “We need a new special relationship with the EU, because Britain’s future lies with Europe... and, one day, back in the European Union.”

The contrast exposes a fault line Labour has never fully resolved. Many activists and members remain strongly pro-European, and senior figures still describe Brexit as economically harmful. But the party is also trying to hold or recover support in places where the 2016 vote still carries political weight and where Nigel Farage’s party sees an opportunity to deepen Labour’s problems.

That is what gives Burnham’s intervention its significance. It is less a grand statement of doctrine than a measure of political reality. A politician discussed as a possible future Labour leader is trying to re-enter parliament through a seat where even talking about rejoining the EU appears too risky.

For a party still searching for a stable language on Brexit, that is the real story. The argument has not gone away. It has simply returned in a form shaped by electoral pressure, regional distrust and Labour’s fear of losing more ground to Reform in the north.

GOING FURTHER

• Andy Burnham says he will not try to return UK to EU | The Guardian

• Burnham pledges not to 're-run' Brexit arguments | BBC NEWS

• Andy Burnham faces perilous race to win Makerfield byelection, allies say | The Guardian

• ‘Britain’s future lies with Europe’: Streeting vows to make rejoining EU key goal if he becomes PM | The Observer

• What to know about the political chaos engulfing the UK’s Labour Party and efforts to unseat Starmer | AP

• Politics latest: Starmer says he wants to fight next election and will not ‘walk away’ | Sky News

• Burnham’s changing views on rejoining the EU | The Telegraph

Sources:

▪ This piece was first published in Europeans TODAY on 18 May 2026.

▪ Cover: Dreamstime/KORWEN.