Norway’s PM Warns Burnham: Don’t Take the “Norwegian Version” of the Single Market

News | By Matt, Editor

Norway’s own prime minister has told Andy Burnham not to copy the “Norwegian version” of EU membership. In a Politico interview published on Monday, Jonas Gahr Støre said that if Britain left the EU because there was “too much Brussels”, joining the single market the Norwegian way would mean taking most of Brussels’ decisions and implementing them — without a vote.

The warning lands eleven days before Burnham’s UK-EU summit in Brussels on 20 November, where a food and plant health (SPS) deal is expected and Labour is already talking up closer ties. Støre’s message is blunt: don’t use Norway as the halfway house.

Key facts

• Norway (population 5.6 million) is in the EU single market through the European Economic Area (EEA) but is not an EU member and has no voting rights over the bloc’s commercial rules, Politico reports.
• Støre: “There’s an obvious democratic deficit in it.” He added: “I don’t see Britain do that. I don’t see Canada do that.”
• After Brexit, he told British friends: “if you left the EU because there was too much Brussels, don’t take the Norwegian version… basically we are taking most of their decisions, we implement them.”
• Norway has signed about 100 extra agreements with Brussels on top of the EEA, covering climate, students, security and more.
• Burnham meets EU leaders on 20 November. He told the Sunday Mirror the summit “doesn’t need to be the end of our ambition”, GB News reports.

“Don’t take the Norwegian version”

Støre has led Norway’s Labour Party since 2014 and been prime minister since 2021. He met Burnham at Labour’s conference in Liverpool in September. Asked about Britain copying Norway’s EU model, he said he would not recommend it, “because I think it’s very different… and they have to find their solution.” The full exchange is in Tim Ross’s Politico interview from Oslo.

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Norwegian PM Jonas Gahr Støre has told POLITICO’s Tim Ross that Britain should absolutely not follow his country’s example by agreeing a Norway-style deal with the EU — free market access without being a full EU member. “After Brexit, British friends called me and said,…

— Christopher Hope📝 (@christopherhope) November 9, 2026

He was clear about the trade-off his own country accepts. “There’s an obvious democratic deficit in it, but pragmatically, all [Norwegian] Parliaments since 1995 have said this is a reasonable way of doing it.” For a country of five million with a “completely open economy”, he said, that can work. For Britain, he does not see it.

🚨NEW: Norway's PM, Jonas Gahr støre, has personally warned the UK and Andy Burnham not join the EU single market

He claims Brussels takes "too much control" and that his country was left implementing Brussels directives

— GB Politics (@GBPolitcs) November 9, 2026

What Burnham is chasing before 20 November

The summit is not a rejoin application. On the table are practical deals: easier food trade under an SPS agreement, emissions trading links, and a youth mobility scheme. A leaked draft already sketched EU 18-to-34-year-olds living here for up to three years with no cap written in, and another line expected Britain to make a “financial contribution” for poorer EU regions in return for market access. Separately, a draft “welcomes” full EU fishing access until 2038 while admitting Celtic Sea stocks are in “drastic” decline.

Burnham’s Sunday Mirror pitch was household costs. Cutting “red tape on food coming in and out of the country will ease pressure on prices at the supermarket,” he said, adding that closer work with Europe “could drive growth, make our country safer and give us more tools to tackle illegal migration.” Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy also confirmed Britain will rejoin Erasmus+, days after tying Remembrance Sunday to the same EU cultural reset.

🚨NEWS: Norway PM warns Britain NOT to join EU single market in Brexit reset because Brussels takes too much control

Jonas Gahr Støre told British friends after Brexit that if they left the EU because there was too much Brussels they should not take the Norwegian version as they… pic.twitter.com/vziP9HxqhM

— 𝔾𝕣𝕚𝕗𝕥𝕪 (@TheGNPE) November 9, 2026

Rule-taker, not rule-maker

The Norway model has always been the soft-Brexit fantasy: single-market access without full membership. Støre has now said out loud what Leave campaigners argued in 2016. You take the rules. You do not write them. You implement “most of their decisions”. That is the “democratic deficit” he names, and it is why he told Britain not to follow.

Labour’s 2024 manifesto still said there would be “no return to the single market, the customs union, or freedom of movement.” Officials have already been talking about free movement in all but name despite that pledge. Støre’s intervention does not invent the row. It puts Norway’s own prime minister on the record against the halfway house Burnham’s allies keep floating.

Andy Burnham has been warned against striking a Norway-style deal with the EU by the country's premier. Norwegian PM Jonas Gahr Støre said the UK should not follow his nation's example by signing up to free market access without being a full member as you become rule-taker.

He…

— Carl Williams (@CarlWillDurham) November 9, 2026

The other side

Støre is not telling Britain to stay frozen. He said the UK, Canada and Norway could work together on space and rare-earth supply chains that also matter to the EU. His own Parliaments have judged the EEA “reasonable” for Norway since 1995. Supporters of closer ties will say Britain can design a bespoke deal that is neither Norway nor full membership, which is exactly what Støre urged: “find their solution”.

No Reform UK frontbench reaction to Støre’s interview had been posted on X at the time of writing. The government has not issued a detailed response beyond its existing line that the 20 November summit is about practical cooperation, not rejoining.

Our view

When the man who actually lives under the Norway model tells Britain not to copy it, that should end the argument. Rule-taker with no vote is not a “reset”. It is the soft rejoin by another name. If Burnham wants closer trade, let him put the terms on the table in plain English before 20 November — and say whether single-market rules without a British vote are still ruled out, or not.

Should Britain reject any Norway-style single market deal that means taking EU rules without a vote? Vote in our poll below.

Sources

• Politico, 9 November 2026 (Tim Ross, Oslo): full Støre interview; EEA facts; 100 extra agreements; “find their solution”
• GB News, 9 November 2026 (Georgia Pearce): Burnham Sunday Mirror quotes; Erasmus+; summit food deal framing
• Daily Mail, 9 November 2026: further report of Støre’s warning

Main image: Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre at the opening of the new government quarter, Torbjørn Kjosvold/SMK, CC BY 4.0, with the European Commission’s Berlaymont building in Brussels, tpholland, CC BY 2.0. Social images also use photos by Troms Arbeiderparti (CC BY 2.0) and Number 10 / Lauren Hurley (OGL 3).

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