Prime Minister has always been flirting with Brussels. It’s time he came clean and just said what he wanted
Andy Burnham wants to cosy up to Brussels (Image: Getty)
I was always told that honesty is the best policy, so it’s a shame that on Europe our Prime Minister has yet to give it a try. For months, Andy Burnham has sworn blind that his dealings with Brussels are just a “reset”, a nice neat tidy-up. Nothing to see here.
But every time he opens his mouth, the mask slips. And this weekend it slipped again when he warned his summit this month “doesn’t need to be the end of our ambition”. Ambition for what, Andy?
Britain’s ordinary regular bloke Prime Minister has spent weeks dropping clangers about an “honest discussion” on the EU. Each time he has done so, No 10 has been forced to clarify that’s his opinion, and not his Government’s.
All the while, Andy keeps reminding us he wants to go all the way and take the country back into the bloc in his lifetime. Yet in May he was “not proposing” that Britain consider rejoining at all.
Let’s be clear – this is not a reset, it is a road map back to Brussels. So why the coyness? The answer lies in his own backyard.
When he won Makerfield in June, he promised a “Makerfield test” at the heart of British politics in a seat where two-thirds voted Leave in 2016. Now new polling shows that his own constituents want British sovereignty over British laws.
That is plainly under threat should their local MP, now Prime Minister, sign us up to a customs union, the single market or the EU itself. Put simply, his European dream would flunk his own test.
Of course, he will point to polls showing 56% of Britons would vote to rejoin. Fine. Then he’s nothing to fear from being straight with us, especially when statistics show 64% want a referendum before any decision to rejoin.
So before he heads to Brussels, he must tell us plainly: is his personal wish now government policy?
Don’t worry, Andy, we can take it. Britain can handle an honest argument. What we will not stand for is being led somewhere we never chose to go.
A Prime Minister who wants to take us back into the EU should have the guts to say so – and face the voters.