Nandy Plays Down Rejoin Talk as Burnham Eyes Closer EU Ties
Labour's cabinet is not united on how far to go with the EU. Culture secretary Lisa Nandy says she wants to avoid circular arguments about rejoining, even as the prime minister, Andy Burnham, prepares a public conversation about Brexit.
A Remembrance Sunday row over Erasmus
Nandy has had to reject claims that she politicised Remembrance Sunday. She had linked the UK rejoining the Erasmus plus scheme to honouring those who served. Tory chair Kevin Hollinrake said she was using the occasion to try to make an EU membership pitch. "Our veterans did not fight for a student exchange scheme," he said.
Nandy replied on Sky News that she could not see what was political about wanting young people from every part of the country to understand what their grandparents and great-grandparents contributed. The weekend's announcement, she said, was that the Erasmus scheme would be widened.
Cabinet colleagues hold back
Burnham has met reservations in his own cabinet. Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds and home secretary Shabana Mahmood are cautious about pushing to rejoin fully. Senior government figures say Burnham wants a mandate to start negotiations in Labour's next election manifesto, with any later referendum solely confirmatory.
Brussels is watching. Michel Barnier, the EU's former chief Brexit negotiator, warned that London cannot pick and choose among the four freedoms, which include freedom of movement. He told the BBC there would be no possibility of having one freedom and not another.
Where Nandy stands
Nandy sits on the cautious side. Her Wigan seat voted overwhelmingly to leave in 2016, and she is one of the most careful cabinet members about reversing Brexit. Asked whether she wanted to go back in, she said: "I don't know if that's a choice we have."
She does not want to stand still, though. She said the prime minister should pursue closer ties, so that the pledges of the referendum campaign are kept, and told Sky News the deal the UK got is not what voters were promised. She added that there were trade-offs and choices to be made, in a conversation with people across the country, which suggests Brexit will be a key theme of the next election campaign.
She is among a handful of cabinet ministers who are uneasy about Burnham's plan for an honest conversation with the public. In private they warn that it risks reopening a dispute from which only Nigel Farage's Reform UK would gain.
The diplomatic calendar
The next steps are scheduled. After the European Political Community summit in Dublin on Thursday, a Brexit reset meeting is due in Brussels on 20 November. Downing Street sources say Burnham will use the Dublin summit to finalise Labour's reset deal and to meet many European leaders for the first time.
EU counterparts will expect Burnham, in private, to say how much further he wants to go. He has said he wants to go past Labour's "red lines" on the EU after the next election.
Soon after the Brussels meeting he is expected to give a speech laying out ways to get closer to the EU, arguing that this would be in the UK's long-term interest. No 10 sources say the aim is to shape the debate first and test public opinion before any final destination is set.
At the Brussels meeting, Brussels is expected to confirm deals on food and farming, on emissions trading and on youth experience visas. Officials will also discuss the next round of the reset. It could include another attempt to join the EU's €150bn (£125bn) Safe defence fund, policing and border cooperation, as well as visas for artists on tour.
Source: The Guardian