Britain to be ‘bolder’ in closer ties with EU, Burnham says

Harry Taylor, Press Association Political Staff

Britain will be “bolder” in closer ties with the European Union, Andy Burnham has indicated.

The Prime Minister told the President of the European Council, Antonio Costa, “greater co-operation” was needed across all areas, as they met on a train while they travelled the Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sunday night.

The comments come ahead of the upcoming summit between the UK and EU, which was due to take place in July but will now go ahead later this year. The date has not yet been confirmed.

Mr Burnham is visiting Ukraine on Monday as he agreed to provide the country with blueprints to produce long-range missiles.

A Downing Street spokesperson said: “The Prime Minister met the President of the European Council Antonio Costa on the train to Kyiv last night, as the two leaders travelled into the city to mark Independence Day.

“It was a vital moment to show unity and solidarity with Ukraine, the leaders agreed.

“Turning to the UK’s relationship with the European Union, the two leaders underlined the importance of being ambitious to drive a step change in relations.

“The UK had to be bolder in terms of getting closer to the bloc, the Prime Minister said.”

“That included building on the close defence and security ties already forged between the UK and European allies to drive greater cooperation across all areas of the relationship,” he added.

“The UK-EU summit set to be held later this year, would offer a platform to continue that work, the leaders agreed.

“Both looked forward to seeing one and another at the Coalition of the Willing later today.”

Later, Downing Street declined to expand on what being “bolder” would mean, with a spokeswoman saying they would not provide a “running commentary” on negotiations with the bloc.

During the same journey to Kyiv, he spoke to the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Luc Frieden.

According to a Downing Street spokeswoman: “The Prime Minister set out his ambitions for the UK to get closer to the European Union, and both agreed on the important cultural and educational ties between the UK and Europe to deliver opportunity for the next generation of Brits and Europeans.”

Mr Burnham looks set to continue a policy started off by his predecessor Sir Keir Starmer of closer relations with the EU.

It echoes comments he wrote in the Times newspaper before he became Prime Minister, where he said: “I want to consolidate the progress made on the existing UK-EU negotiations and make further progress quickly, including by strengthening our co-operation on illegal migration, economic security and the broader resilience of our societies to external threats — from terrorism to AI-driven disinformation.”

During his campaign to win the heavily-Brexit voting Makerfield constituency in the by-election, Mr Burnham had said he was not in favour of the UK rejoining the EU, warning it could be a “permanent rut” of Brexit arguments.

He had previously said he wanted to see the UK back in the EU within his lifetime.

However during the contest, he said: “My view is that Brexit has been damaging, but I also believe the last thing we should do right now is re-run those arguments. Britain will be stuck in a permanent rut if we’re just constantly arguing and people are pulling away from each other.

“It is time, surely, isn’t it, to bring people back together, to focus on what we’ve got in common, to get the growth coming to all places, so it’s felt there.

“That is what we need in this moment and it’s really important that whatever comes out of this by-election there is a more unifying feeling about the change that we need to work towards.”

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