Prime Minister seeks to avoid ‘collateral damage’ to UK industry from EU scheme

David Hughes, Press Association Political Editor in New York

Andy Burnham will urge Brussels’ top official Ursula von der Leyen not to use protectionist measures to freeze UK firms out of European contracts.

The Prime Minister will meet the European Commission president in the margins of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday with a message that “we are not your enemy”.

He will warn that UK industry risks becoming “collateral damage” as a result of the EU’s scheme to protect its manufacturing businesses from being undercut by competition from China.

The so-called “Made in Europe” scheme – formally known as the Industrial Accelerator Act – could damage firms which are closely linked to supply chains across the continent.

The EU’s proposals intend to focus public contracts and subsidies for clean technologies such as electric vehicles and green energy on manufacturers based within the bloc.

The move could potentially hit some British manufacturers and firms supplying components to companies based in the EU.

Mr Burnham said he would be raising the concerns directly with Ms Von der Leyen in New York.

“We do have concerns about Made in Europe, which is something that could affect British industry and British supply chains,” he said.

“I will meet the President of the European Commission… and I will, in a constructive spirit, put on the table some of our concerns towards those things.”

Mr Burnham told reporters accompanying him on the trip to the UN in New York: “We have considerable support among the member states for the position we are taking because Europe’s argument is not with us.

“We both suffer the same effects as other countries, particularly steel and the issue it raises for the steel industry in Europe and in Britain.

“We are making the argument ‘we are not your enemies here… we are not the problem’. Made in Europe is dealing with a different problem.

“We are making the argument that ‘let’s avoid collateral damage’.”

A planned UK-EU summit was shelved when Mr Burnham replaced Sir Keir Starmer in No 10, but is due to be rescheduled later this year.

Mr Burnham has seen Canada’s Mark Carney forge closer ties with the EU, with the offer of a new “associate member” status – something that has not been available to the UK.

The Prime Minister said: “The European Union made it clear that that wasn’t open to us.”

He will say the “turbulence” of the decade since Brexit showed what happens “when outside actors seek to manipulate, to distort facts, influence the British democratic process”.

“Going into the next decade we need to be clear-eyed about that and become stronger and more on the front foot about challenging that,” he said.

Mr Burnham declined to rule out putting a commitment to rejoining the EU in the next Labour manifesto, saying it was an issue “for another day”.

But he said he wanted to “go to the next level” in terms of forging a new deal with the EU “that will further boost the British economy”.

“Those issues are the substance of the summit alongside EU requests around youth mobility,” he said.

Before he entered 10 Downing Street, Mr Burnham had suggested the UK could rejoin the EU within his lifetime.

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