Burnham warned against rejoining EU

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Communist Party leader Alex Gordon made the call after the Prime Minister carefully left open the prospect of Labour proposing to drag Britain back into the bloc at the next general election.

Mr Gordon said: “Andy Burnham’s leadership of the Labour Party is marked by its weakness and lack of strategic direction.

“One week, he promises the voters of Makerfield not to ‘rerun’ Brexit arguments, the next week he does precisely that.

“As the EU descends into a spiral of deindustrialisation, stagnation and an electoral surge for far-right parties, ruling out rejoining the EU is precisely what is required.”

Mr Burnham has pledged to respect Labour’s last election manifesto, drawn up by his predecessor Sir Keir Starmer, which promised not to rejoin the EU single market or customs union, but he has made a priority of trying to snuggle up to Brussels.

Speaking to reporters as he travelled to New York to attend the United Nations general assembly, he was asked whether he could rule out a commitment to rejoin appearing in Labour’s next election manifesto. He responded: “Our focus at the moment is on a UK-EU summit, which we hope will take place later this year.

“My immediate priority is to build on the good work that Keir did in rebuilding bridges. Because those bridges were broken in the early part of this decade. And Keir did a good job in re-establishing that relationship.

“What we have got to do now is go to the next level in terms of reaching a practical agreement that will further boost the British economy. And those issues are the substance of the summit, alongside EU requests around youth mobility.”

He added: “The other issues you discuss, they are for another day.”

The Prime Minister confirmed concerns about the EU’s Made in Europe programme, which threatens to disadvantage key British manufacturing industries and block his plans for closer relations.

He said: ���Europe’s argument is not with us. We both suffer the same effects as other countries, particularly steel.”

Mr Burnham was scheduled to meet EU commission boss Ursula von der Leyen today. He has long been on record as saying he hoped Britain would rejoin the bloc at some point in the future.

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