Burnham rules out rejoining EU within this Parliament

Andy Burnham signalled he could fight the next general election on a promise to take the UK back into the EU as he ruled out rejoining the bloc within this Parliament.

The Prime Minister said he would not “move ahead of the public” but that he wanted to secure a better post-Brexit deal, arguing the existing agreement is “harder” than what was proposed at the 2016 referendum.

Amid speculation he could call an early general election seeking his own mandate to rejoin following a bounce in the polls, he insisted there would not be a vote “any time soon” but left the door open to including the promise in the next manifesto.

Mr Burnham previously committed to Labour’s red lines that rule out rejoining the customs union, single market or free movement, after fighting the by-election in Leave-voting Makerfield that served as a stepping stone into No 10 with a promise not to “re-run” Brexit arguments.

But his call over the weekend for an “honest discussion” about returning to freedom of movement fuelled questions about the parameters around his vision for a deepening relationship with Brussels.

Asked about Brexit on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Mr Burnham said: “I don’t think things have worked out as people said they would at the time, particularly when it comes to immigration.

“I think we’ve got weaker control now. The reason the small boats crisis has arisen is because we can’t return people, and people know we can’t do that in the same way that we used to be able to do.”

But he added: “I’m not proposing any changes in this Parliament. I’m not going to move away from the red lines that were in the Labour manifesto.

“I am respecting what I said to the voters in Makerfield, but I’m not going to say this morning, sitting here, that the deal we’ve got at the moment is good enough for Britain. I don’t think it is good enough for Britain.

“I think we can make it better and I’m going to lead a discussion about how do we make it better in a way that people can support.”

Asked when the public could expect to see a manifesto proposing a return to the EU, Mr Burnham ruled out an early general election but left the door open to fighting the next vote on a promise to rejoin.

“No time soon, if at all, it’s not. It’s not about that. My mind isn’t on that. I don’t know if that is coming over here, but it genuinely is not on that. There is no election coming anytime soon,” he said.

Mr Burnham will meet EU chiefs including European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen for a key summit in Brussels on November 20 as he seeks to strike a better deal with the bloc.

The Prime Minister wants to consider various longer-term options for a new relationship with Brussels, potentially including a return to full EU membership or joining the single market – which would require free movement.

Mr Burnham told the Sunday Times he wanted to have a “very factual, quite evidence-based debate about this” as he acknowledged freedom of movement “had very significant challenges associated with it”.

He said he could not imagine recommending joining the Schengen borderless area or ditching the pound to adopt the euro.