Don’t reverse Brexit, Trickett warns Burnham

Britain / 29 October 2026 Farage says Reform UK members can support Tommy Robinson after harassment conviction 29 October 2026 Justice System / 29 October 2026 Russel Brand mouths words to wife during character statement 29 October 2026 Workers’ Rights / 29 October 2026 ‘No further delay’ on 50% thresholds as new union powers come into force 29 October 2026 Big Tech / 29 October 2026 Social media age checks effective but not foolproof, Ofcom warns 29 October 2026 Healthcare / 29 October 2026 Thousands of patients unable to access GPs online after collapse of tech firm 29 October 2026 Britain / 29 October 2026 Poundland on the brink of collapse with 12,000 jobs at risk 29 October 2026 TALK of reversing Brexit is a distraction from the work the government needs to do, a leading left MP told Andy Burnham today.

Jon Trickett warned in an article for Politics Home that “Brexit didn’t cause Britain’s economic malaise. Its roots lie much earlier with the increasing dominance of finance, culminating in the 2008 banking crash.

“Reversing Brexit won’t correct these problems. Instead, we need a fundamental reorganisation of our bloated financial sector and our distorted capitalist structures.”

Mr Trickett, who represents the “red wall” seat of Normanton and Hemsworth, wrote that “reopening the constitutional settlement” now would betray 2024 manifesto promises “and plunge the nation into the paralysing polarisation of the referendum debates.”

He also pointed out that the European Union is no panacea for those who want to reverse neoliberalism, as Mr Burnham claims.

“Neoliberal orthodoxy has colonised its decision-making structures, buttressed by centrist and right-wing majorities. 

“It has enforced austerity, created inequality and low pay, and allowed the European Court of Justice to rank cross-border corporate freedoms above the rights of workers.

“It is a distraction from the real task: rebuilding a productive economy from the bottom up, taming Whitehall and requiring Britain’s bloated finance sector to re-engage with the real economy,” his article concluded.

Mr Burnham has placed better relations with the EU at the heart of his political strategy and has floated the possibility that a pledge to rejoin may be in Labour’s next election manifesto.

Anxieties about the government’s direction will likely sharpen after next week’s budget. Chancellor John Healey today continued his charm offensive aimed at City and business.

“I want to be a chancellor who backs business in Britain making a profit” and entrepreneurs, he pledged.

“If you’re not making a profit, you’ve got nothing to put back into the business. And for the people who start up these businesses, the ones who really thrive and grow, they have to make a profit,” the Chancellor intoned in an interview.

Mr Healey’s love is not unrequited. The boss of Barclays Bank CS Venkatakrishnan said today that “I deeply respect the responsibility that the chancellor has and he has our full support and backing.”

He added that he regarded the widely trailed possibility of extra taxes on banks in the budget as “bearable.”

Labour goes in to budget week with a renewed lead in opinion polls, with some putting the party within tantalising reach of an overall majority over a divided right, evidence which will be used by those in Downing Street promoting an early general election.