Labour risked plunging back into Brexit wars today as Sadiq Khan demanded an immediate push to rejoin the EU.
The London Mayor said it was ‘not enough’ for Andy Burnham to suggest that restoring ties with Brussels could be in the next election manifesto.
Instead he urged the PM to ‘start the work now’ of persuading the country about the ‘benefits’ of being inside the bloc.
He argued the UK should go back into the customs union immediately, seek ‘associate’ membership and then propose rejoining entirely without a second referendum in the manifesto.
The intervention, in a Labour conference interview with the i paper, came despite Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds delivering a stark warning against ‘political paralysis’ of re-running the Brexit debate.
Mr Reynolds said that would come with a ‘cost’, insisting he did not even support returning to the EU customs union.
London Mayor Lord Khan said it was ‘not enough’ for Andy Burnham to suggest that restoring ties with Brussels could be in the next election manifesto
The intervention, in a Labour conference interview with the i paper, came despite Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds delivering a stark warning against ‘political paralysis’ of re-running the Brexit debate
Europe has been rising up the agenda in Labour, with Tony Blair suggesting last week that the UK should look to rejoin a ‘significantly reformed’ bloc over the next decade.
Mr Burnham has previously endorsed going back into the EU, although he has cooled on the idea somewhat since becoming PM.
In his interview, Lord Khan said it was not “enough” to float rejoining after the next election.
‘You can’t, a week before a general election, pull out of a hat this rabbit of a manifesto and say we’re going to rejoin in six weeks’ time,’ he said.
‘The heavy lifting, the pitch rolling must be done now, explaining to the country the disbenefits of being outside the European Union and the benefits of being part of this family.’
The comments came after Mr Reynolds struck a very different tone speaking to the Sunday Telegraph.
He suggested the UK should keep negotiating to improve ties within the current ‘red lines’ of not rejoining the single market or customs union.
‘This approach of genuinely improving things across the board and not returning to political uncertainty, I think, is absolutely the right one because there was a cost of leaving the European Union. That was always going to be the case,’ he said.
Mr Burnham has previously endorsed going back into the EU, although he has cooled on the idea somewhat since becoming PM
‘There was also a cost in the kind of political paralysis and uncertainty that came from that. So that would return if this became one of the dominant features again of British politics. ‘I wouldn’t say all of our economic problems were solved by being in the European Union
‘You’re not going to get much more benefit than what we’re already going to get from the agreement that we have struck and are negotiating the details of, and then you’re going to lose out on all those opportunities around the rest of the world that we’ve got.
‘And I think if people recognise that the difference that, for instance, the UK-EU reset as it stands would give on the real practical benefits, that’s what we should be focused on.’
