Burnham and the EU: Britain Looks for the Way Back, Ideally Without Admitting It Is One

At the end of September, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham opened a debate London had avoided for years. Britain, he said, could keep the current post-Brexit arrangements, join a customs union, return to the single market or "go all the way" and consider full EU membership. He wants to build national consensus around one option and set out the choice around the UK-EU summit in November. Labour's 2024 manifesto had explicitly ruled out the single market, a customs union and free movement.

The options are very different. A customs union would ease trade in goods but repair only part of the Brexit damage, most of which stems from leaving the single market. The single market in turn means free movement, European Court of Justice jurisdiction and ongoing alignment with EU rules, all non-negotiable for Brussels. And rejoining would mean a fresh accession process, without the old rebates.

In 2016 Britain wanted to take back control. In 2026 it mostly wants back the washing machine it left behind in the shared flat.

Nothing has been decided and nothing has been applied for. But the tone has shifted, as Burnham's visit to Chancellor Merz on 8 October showed, when Merz promised to help bring Britain closer to the EU. The great revolution of 2016 is being renegotiated piece by piece, one administrative arrangement at a time. Some revolutions end not with a bang, but with the discovery that the forms you abolished were connected to other forms you still need.