Does the European Union want Britain back?
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has reopened the Brexit debate. That doesn’t mean the UK will be welcomed back on its own terms.
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham received rapturous applause when he said at his Labour Party conference in September he wanted a debate on Britain’s “long-term relationship” with the European Union.
PHOTO: AFP
Peter Foster, George Parker and Ben Hal
It was a balmy late September day in New York when Andy Burnham, Britain’s new prime minister, first gave a clue of his plan to reopen the UK’s Brexit debate, 10 years after the country’s vote to leave the European Union.
In a private meeting on the margins of the UN General Assembly, Burnham told European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen that the UK was ready to look again at closer relations with Europe, including possibly rejoining the bloc.