“Labour should stop trying to turn back the clock and instead focus on setting out serious proposals for the future.

“The Conservatives are the only party with a plan to fix our broken economy and welfare system, fund our defence and get Britain working again.”

Mr Burnham has previously called for Britain to rejoin the EU “in my lifetime” after 17.4million people voted to leave in 2016.

In his foreword to the dossier, Sir Tony calls for a “new approach” with the EU.

The paper calls for a series of changes within the EU itself, including ending freedom of movement.

Sir Tony has long been a pro-European and was mooted as a potential president of the European Council back in 2009, two years after leaving Downing Street.

Downing Street has been approached for comment.

Tony Blair piles pressure on Andy Burnham to reverse Brexit ‘in next 10 years’

Tony Blair has increased pressure on Prime Minister Andy Burnham to rethink Britain’s long-term relationship with the European Union, arguing that the UK should work towards rejoining a significantly reformed EU within the next decade.

The intervention from the former Labour prime minister comes at a politically sensitive moment for Burnham. Ten years after the 2016 referendum, the Labour government is attempting to rebuild Britain’s relationship with Europe while insisting that its immediate priority is practical cooperation rather than reopening the question of membership.

Blair’s intervention pushes that debate considerably further.

In a new paper from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, the former prime minister argues that Britain should establish a long-term objective of rejoining a reformed European Union. He has urged Burnham to use the government’s planned 10-year strategy to put the question of EU membership back on the political agenda.

The proposal does not amount to an immediate call for Britain simply to reverse Brexit.

Instead, Blair argues for a structured process in which Britain and the EU negotiate a future relationship, with the possibility of eventual membership forming part of the long-term objective.

That distinction is important because Burnham has so far avoided making a commitment to rejoin.

Burnham leaves the door open

Burnham’s position has shifted noticeably since he became prime minister.

In September, he was asked whether he could rule out putting a commitment to reverse Brexit in Labour’s next manifesto.

He declined to do so.

Instead, Burnham said that his immediate priority was rebuilding Britain’s relationship with the EU and securing practical agreements that could strengthen the British economy. He described the question of future membership as something for “another day”.

That answer stopped short of a commitment to rejoin.

But it also represented a significant difference from a categorical rejection.

Burnham has made clear that his government intends to pursue closer cooperation with European countries on trade, energy, defence and other areas.

The debate is therefore no longer simply about whether Brexit should be revisited.

It is increasingly about how far Britain’s relationship with Europe should ultimately develop.

Blair wants a decade-long strategy

Blair’s proposal is more ambitious.

The Tony Blair Institute’s report argues that Britain should work towards the ambition of rejoining a “significantly reformed” EU over the next decade. It also argues that Britain should be prepared to accept some of the conditions associated with membership, including free movement and a financial contribution to the EU.

Blair’s argument is that the debate should not simply be framed as “Leave versus Remain”.

Instead, he wants Britain to consider what a future European Union might look like and whether a reformed EU could offer Britain a relationship that serves its economic and strategic interests.

That is a more complicated proposal than simply reversing the 2016 referendum.

It would involve negotiations over Britain’s economic relationship with Europe, regulatory alignment, migration, financial contributions and the wider institutional structure of the EU.

Blair has also argued that Britain should use the possibility of eventual membership as leverage to encourage reforms inside the EU.

The single market question

One of the most significant aspects of Blair’s argument is that he does not simply advocate an immediate return to the arrangements Britain had before Brexit.

The former prime minister has argued that Britain should seek a different relationship with a reformed EU.

According to the Tony Blair Institute’s proposal, the UK should abandon the previous government’s red lines against eventually rejoining the single market and customs union, while negotiating from the basis that future arrangements should provide clear economic or strategic benefits to Britain.

That would represent a substantial change from the current government position.

Burnham has inherited the broad framework established by the previous Labour leadership, which prioritised closer cooperation while remaining outside the EU, the single market and customs union.

Burnham has said that he intends to pursue practical agreements before considering the larger constitutional question.

Blair is effectively arguing that Britain should start thinking about the destination as well as the immediate steps.

Economic arguments behind the debate

Supporters of closer EU integration argue that Brexit created additional barriers between British businesses and their largest nearby trading market.

The Tony Blair Institute has pointed to trade, regulation and economic growth as reasons for reconsidering Britain’s long-term relationship with Europe.

A separate report cited by The Independent estimated that the lack of mutual recognition of standards was associated with an annual export loss of up to £6.5 billion.

Such estimates are part of a broader debate about Brexit’s economic consequences.

They do not establish that rejoining the EU would automatically solve Britain’s economic problems.

Nor would membership necessarily come without costs.

A future UK government would have to negotiate the terms of membership, while Britain would have to accept whatever conditions were agreed with the EU.

That could include financial contributions and freedom of movement, both of which Blair’s proposal explicitly recognises.

The political problem for Burnham

For Burnham, the economic argument is only one part of the calculation.

Brexit remains politically sensitive.

The 2016 referendum divided the country, and the issue contributed to major changes in Britain’s party system.

Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, has made opposition to closer European integration an important part of its political identity.

A Labour government explicitly promising to rejoin the EU could therefore face strong criticism from Reform and from voters who continue to regard Brexit as an important democratic decision.

There is also a question of Labour’s traditional electoral coalition.

Burnham’s own parliamentary constituency voted to leave the EU in 2016.

That does not necessarily mean that its voters hold identical views today, but it demonstrates why the issue presents political complications for Labour.

Polling adds another dimension

The debate has been accompanied by new polling suggesting that attitudes towards Britain’s relationship with Europe have changed since 2016.

A YouGov survey commissioned by Best for Britain, involving more than 13,000 people, examined different possible future relationships between Britain and the EU.

The research suggested that a Labour commitment to seeking EU membership could alter the party’s electoral position. However, the survey was conducted in June, before Burnham became prime minister, and its modelling should therefore not be treated as a prediction of the next general election.

That qualification is important.

Polling can measure attitudes at a particular moment, but it cannot determine what voters will do at a future election.

It also cannot answer the broader policy question of whether rejoining the EU would be economically or strategically beneficial.

Those questions require consideration of the terms of any future agreement.

Opposition from within Labour

Not everyone in Labour wants the issue reopened.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has previously warned against returning to what she described as the repetitive arguments surrounding Brexit.

Her position reflects concerns that the party could spend political energy revisiting the referendum rather than focusing on immediate economic and domestic priorities.

That creates a significant debate inside Labour.

One side argues that the consequences of Brexit require Britain to consider a fundamentally different relationship with Europe.

The other argues that the country should concentrate on practical cooperation without reopening the constitutional question.

Burnham has so far appeared closer to the second position, although his refusal to rule out future membership has created greater uncertainty about where the government might eventually go.

The European question is changing

The debate is also occurring at a time when the EU itself is discussing changes to its relationship with non-member countries.

Blair has highlighted proposals for new forms of association between the EU and European countries outside the bloc.

His argument is that the old binary choice between full membership and complete separation may no longer describe the full range of possibilities.

That could create space for Britain to negotiate a different relationship.

But it would still require agreement from the EU’s member states.

Britain could not simply decide unilaterally to rejoin.

What would rejoining actually mean?

A future decision to seek EU membership would raise a long list of questions.

Britain would need to negotiate the terms of membership.

The government would have to address freedom of movement, financial contributions, regulatory arrangements and the role of EU institutions.

It would also need to determine whether the UK would receive special arrangements or accept the standard conditions applicable to new members.

Blair’s proposal acknowledges that these issues would need to be negotiated rather than assumed.

His central argument is that Britain should begin the process with an objective in mind rather than ruling out membership indefinitely.

A major test for Burnham

The pressure from Blair creates another difficult choice for Burnham.

He can continue focusing on practical cooperation with Europe while keeping the question of membership for the future.

Or he could eventually move towards a more explicit long-term objective of rejoining.

The first approach would allow the government to concentrate on immediate economic and diplomatic issues without reopening every argument from the Brexit period.

The second would represent a much more substantial change in Labour’s European policy.

Neither course is politically neutral.

Closer integration could potentially reduce some of the barriers created by Brexit, but it could also reopen divisions over sovereignty, immigration and Britain’s relationship with European institutions.

The next decade

Blair’s intervention is ultimately about the next decade rather than the next few months.

He is asking Burnham to think beyond the immediate UK-EU negotiations and establish a long-term national objective.

That is a fundamentally different political timetable from the government’s current approach.

Burnham has made clear that his immediate priority is rebuilding trust with European partners and securing practical agreements.

The prime minister has also said that questions about eventual membership belong to the future.

Blair is now arguing that the future should be discussed sooner.

That does not mean Britain is about to rejoin the European Union.

It does mean that the political debate over Brexit has entered another phase.

Ten years after the referendum, the argument is shifting from whether Brexit happened to what Britain’s long-term relationship with Europe should look like.

For Burnham, Blair’s intervention makes that question harder to avoid.

The prime minister has not committed Labour to reversing Brexit, but he has also declined to rule out the possibility in the next manifesto.

Blair’s proposal therefore gives the government another option to consider: a gradual strategy aimed at eventual membership of a reformed EU, rather than an immediate attempt to undo the 2016 decision.

Whether that approach could command political support would depend on the terms, the economic evidence and the views of voters at the time.

For now, however, one thing is clear.

The debate over Britain’s relationship with Europe is no longer confined to the arguments of 2016.

Tony Blair wants Andy Burnham to look ten years ahead.

Burnham’s answer so far has been to concentrate on rebuilding the relationship first and leave the ultimate question for later.

The pressure will now be on the prime minister to explain where, exactly, he believes that relationship should eventually lead.