Burnham Cabinet splits down the middle on rejoining the EU

Andy Burnham’s Cabinet is split down the middle on whether Britain should rejoin the EU, with around 15 of 28 ministers backing a return and 13 undecided or opposed, The i Paper can reveal.

Further cracks run through the room on whether a new referendum must underpin any move back into the bloc. The Prime Minister wants consensus on Europe yet his own top table shows the peril of chasing much closer ties. He hopes to sign a Brexit-reset deal next month that would let under-30s work and study in Europe and ease trade, then use the UK-EU summit in Brussels on 20 November as a springboard to put rejoining, the customs union or the single market on the table.

Burnham is gambling that voters now want tighter links and that this could answer cost of living pressures and even the small boats crisis he blames on Brexit. Many ministers reject that strategy while Nigel Farage’s Reform UK remains an electoral threat, especially in Labour’s Northern heartlands.

Most ministers now lean toward the view that a second referendum is unavoidable. Without one, nothing would stop a future Conservative or Reform UK government reversing the choice, leaving the EU distrustful. “The EU needs to know this is what Britain really wants,” one source said. Burnham has called a new referendum the wrong move “right now” yet stopped short of ruling it out of a future manifesto, telling the BBC: “Yes, things are possible. I think where we are isn’t good enough.”

Enthusiasts and sceptics inside the room

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, Defence Secretary Wes Streeting, Welsh Secretary Stephen Kinnock, Labour chair Bridget Phillipson and Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh are understood to be the keenest on return. Streeting has called leaving a “catastrophic mistake”. One cabinet minister declared: “I’m very pro-European. I think it will have to be step by step… I do believe we will be back in the EU in the next decade or so.”

Britain voted to leave and take back control of its borders, laws and money. Reopening the whole argument now only invites the same Brussels rules the country already rejected, while Reform UK stands ready to defend that choice. A smaller state that runs itself does not need another referendum circus or a slow march back into the customs union.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander wants the manifesto red lines respected and warns “no one wants to go back to the toxicity and the divisions of previous Brexit debates”. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds sees damage to trade. Angela Rayner is “really supportive” of Burnham’s words and “open-minded on future policy” but insists any new commitment needs a fresh election mandate.

Others are colder. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy called reopening the debate “a world away from what people are asking for”. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood urged a clear-eyed look at the trade-offs. Yvette Cooper stays cautious, mindful of her Leave-voting seat where Reform came second. A Labour insider called this Cabinet “significantly more anti-Europe than the previous one” after the exit of several rejoin voices and the arrival of figures such as Chancellor John Healey, described as an Atlanticist who “doesn’t like Europe”.

One former minister who still calls themselves pro-European refused to join any rejoin drive: “I won’t be involved in that. Seems like a recipe for division and self-flagellation to me. Have they looked at what’s happening in French and German politics?” Burnham is expected to hold off on any final decision while the split festers and Reform UK keeps the pressure on.

Original source: The i Paper