Former prime minister David Cameron has warned Andy Burnham against reopening the politically divisive question of whether Britain should rejoin the European Union, arguing that the country risks wasting another decade debating its relationship with Brussels instead of tackling its domestic economic problems.
Lord Cameron, who left Downing Street after campaigning unsuccessfully for Britain to remain in the bloc during the 2016 referendum, said a renewed debate about membership would be “very long and painful”.
His intervention comes as Mr Burnham prepares to travel to Brussels next week for talks with EU leaders, where he is expected to sign agreements covering food and farming, emissions trading and a youth mobility scheme.
The arrangements could boost UK gross domestic product by 0.4 per cent, according to Mr Burnham, who has sought to reset relations with the bloc while exploring options for a different long-term partnership.
But Lord Cameron warned that the prospect of rejoining could undermine efforts to secure practical improvements to the existing relationship.
“If you’re not going to, you know, commit to trying to make the partnership stronger because you’re flirting with rejoining, I think there’s some dangers there,” he said.
He also appeared sceptical about the economic case for returning to a customs union, arguing that Britain’s underlying problems were domestic rather than a consequence of Brexit.
“Our economic problems are we are overspending, over-borrowing, over-taxing, over-regulated, and far too much being spent on working age welfare. Those are a set of problems that have nothing to do with Brexit,” he said.
“Do we really want to go into another decade-long debate about whether we should be in or out, when actually we should deal with our own problems while making the partnership model work?”
The comments underline the political difficulty facing Mr Burnham as he seeks closer economic ties with Europe without reopening the divisions that defined the referendum campaign.
The EU’s former chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has also warned Britain that deeper integration would involve difficult compromises, insisting there would be “no cherry picking”.
Meanwhile, Britain’s ambassador to the US, Sir Christian Turner, has cautioned against treating closer relations with Europe as an alternative to maintaining strong economic links with Washington.
Speaking at a Politico event in Washington DC, he described the idea that Britain must choose between the two as a “false premise”.
“If we want an engine of growth in the UK, the idea that we can somehow ignore the Americans is for the birds,” he said. “It’s absolutely foundational to what we need to deliver and what Andy Burnham wants to deliver right across the economy.”
But Sir Christian also backed the case for improving Britain’s relationship with the EU, saying the country had not made a success of Brexit.
“Equally, what I think he has set out – and he will give a big speech next week, which will do more of this – is that we have got to confront the challenge of getting the best growth through our relationship with Europe. And I think, broadly speaking, most would say we have not done Brexit well.”
He warned, however, that any proposed changes would need public support, given that voters had delivered a clear mandate to leave in 2016.
For Mr Burnham, the challenge will be to demonstrate that closer ties can deliver measurable economic benefits without triggering another existential argument over Britain’s place in Europe. The Brussels summit may mark a step towards that reset, but Cameron’s warning illustrates how politically exposed the debate remains.
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