Andy Burnham has vowed that the “public will be the boss” as he seeks to unpick Brexit and indicated that there will be another vote if the UK attempts to rejoin the EU.
In a statement to parliament the prime minister confirmed that he would go ahead with a summit in Brussels next month to for a Brexit reset but would put a promise to rethink the UK’s relationship on the table and possibly seek to rejoin as part of an attempt to get a better deal.
He warned MPs that “sticking with the status quo is not good enough” as he insisted that the “public backs my pragmatic approach”.
Calling on MPs to rethink Brexit in order to secure a deal with Brussels, the prime minister told the Commons it would be a “dereliction of duty” to ignore an opportunity to seek a new deal with the EU, insisting the public supported his approach.
It came after a weekend where the European Movement UK published a plan for the UK to rejoin the EU by 2036 at the latest.
Meanwhile, as the prime minister took questions in the Commons, a debate was taking place at the same time in Westminster Hall with MPs led by Labour Folkstone MP Tony Vaughan on a petition calling on the UK to rejoin.
Mr Burnham though was mocked by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch who accused him of using Brexit to avoid discussing difficult issues like defence spending and questioned whether Labour was capable of negotiating a good deal to reenter the bloc.
But representatives of British motor manufacturers - including Honda, Jaguar Land Rover and the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders (SMMT) - had just before the prime minister’s statement joined a forum discussing the damage done to supply chains in the UK and EU by the EU’s plans for Made in Europe rules. They called for both sides to agree closer alignment as a matter of urgency.
Alessandro Marongiu, head of trade policy at SMMT, warned that the UK-EU trading relationship on motor vehicle production is “not peripheral” and is worth about £70bn a year.
He warned both the UK and EU could be hurt without a compromise on Made in Europe, stating: “Measures affecting UK automotive have quite inevitable impacts on the EU supply chains too, and fragmentation of our shared supply chain would add quite significant costs on that industrial heartland that Made in Europe seeks to protect rather than creating genuine resilience.”
Confirming the date of the EU-UK summit in Brussels on 20 November, which was postponed due to Sir Keir Starmer’s resignation, Mr Burnham told the Commons he will “work harder over the next five weeks” to strike a deal.
“I believe our chances of doing so will be enhanced by being open to discussion about our relationship with the EU in the longer term,” he said.
The two sides will seek to sign a new post-Brexit food and drink deal, a youth mobility scheme and an agreement on emissions trading to avoid European carbon taxes on British business.
He told MPs that the British public will “be the boss” of the negotiations, saying: “I am clear, the public opinion currently supports a pragmatic approach like the one I am suggesting.
“If we go into this further phase, we will proceed with care and complete transparency.”
Mr Burnham said the upcoming summit “presents an opportunity to make progress on two crucial issues: boosting UK growth and controlling illegal immigration”.
He said deals on the table for the UK-EU summit could provide a £10 bn-a-year boost to the British economy.
But he acknowledged there could be a row with Brussels over the protectionist “Made in Europe” scheme.
He told MPs: “This summit presents an opportunity to make progress on two crucial issues: boosting UK growth and controlling illegal immigration.
“On the table is a trade deal on food and drink products, a deal on emissions trading, progress towards linking our energy systems, a new youth experience scheme and deeper co-operation on immigration.
“The summit will also be an opportunity to raise our concerns about Made in Europe and it is clear to me that there is an opportunity to make progress in all of these areas.
“Together, these deals will add the equivalent of over £10 billion per year to the UK economy by 2040, with the potential to add significantly more.”
But Ms Badenoch accused Mr Burnham of revealing his hand before the UK-EU summit, adding: “This is not how you conduct negotiations”.
The Conservative Party leader said that the prime minister is “not going to get a better deal”, and told the Commons: “What has the prime minister chosen to focus on today? Brexit.
“His exact words earlier this year were, ‘the last thing we should do right now is re-run those arguments’.
“And yet here he is unpicking the deal this country signed with the EU a decade after the referendum.
“He is not going to get a better deal. The EU are tough negotiators, and it’s not just that the EU are tough negotiators, he has already revealed his entire negotiating hand.
“He has just blurted out everything he wants in this statement and I will tell him now, as a former trade secretary, this is not how you conduct negotiations.”
Responding, Mr Burnham said: “She says that, oh, I’ve revealed what I want to do and this isn’t any way to negotiate it. Because the Tories were so good, weren’t they, at negotiating deals with our partners?”
The prime minister also said the Brexit referendum result was “legitimate”, despite Downing Street saying it is “inconceivable” that Russia did not seek to interfere with the vote.
On The Rest is Politics podcast over the weekend, the prime minister revealed he had asked, on his arrival in No 10 this summer, whether Moscow had been involved in the vote and was given “the clear answer that yes, there was”.
But on Monday, a Foreign Office minister said Russian attempts to interfere in the Brexit referendum were not successful.
No 10 echoed the comments, saying the government does not believe Russian attempts to interfere with the referendum were successful.
