Labour has been warned against reopening the politically explosive question of Britain’s European Union membership, amid fears that renewed debate could unsettle businesses and revive divisions that have yet to heal since Brexit.
Andy Haldane, the former Bank of England chief economist who advised Andy Burnham during his tenure as Greater Manchester mayor, urged the Prime Minister to resist calls to revisit the issue, arguing that the economic cost of renewed uncertainty would be difficult for Britain to absorb.
“I think that would be a damaging thing from a growth perspective,” Mr Haldane told the BBC. “It would throw up a huge dust cloud of uncertainty, not least to business, which we can ill-afford in this environment.”
He drew parallels with the 2016 referendum, saying uncertainty before and after the vote had imposed “a huge drag on business and investment”.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds struck a more nuanced note at Labour’s conference in Liverpool, arguing that the question could not simply be avoided when considering Britain’s economic future over the next decade. His priority, he said, was to minimise uncertainty for British businesses.
Labour MP Melanie Onn, meanwhile, urged caution, warning that “the scars have not healed” from the Brexit battle. Having lost her Brexit-backing constituency to the Conservatives in 2019 before winning it back in 2024, she cautioned that public trust was “hard-earned and easily lost”.
For Labour, the challenge is balancing closer European ties against the political and economic risks of reopening one of Britain’s most divisive debates.
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