Andy Burnham’s domestic revolution could unobtrusively pull Britain closer to Europe
Europe’s leaders queued up this week to welcome Andy Burnham as Britain’s seventh prime minister since the Brexit vote – all expressing the hope that his tenure would continue the thaw in EU-UK relations initiated by his predecessor, Keir Starmer. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission chief, said she was looking forward to strengthening cross-Channel ties, adding that a “very good” first discussion had confirmed a common commitment to “bringing the EU and UK closer and closer”. France’s Emmanuel Macron said he hoped for a deeper relationship that gave “new momentum to the partnership” between the EU and the UK. Germany’s Friedrich Merz said he, too, was looking forward to forging an even closer bond. But what, realistically and concretely, can Europe expect from the Liverpudlian dubbed the “King of the North”? How might his approach to the bloc differ from Starmer’s much-trumpeted (and as often maligned) “reset” in post-Brexit relations? We know practically nothing about what Burnham’s foreign policy might look like: his priorities, as Paul Taylor noted, are famously domestic. We do know his baseline instincts are pro-European: he argued against the “isolation” of Brexit in 2016. Last year, he said he hoped Britain might rejoin the EU during his lifetime. This year, campaigning for the byelection he had to fight and win in order to become PM, in a constituency estimated to have voted 65% leave, he carefully clarified his position. Brexit “has been damaging”, he said, but, he added, “I also believe the last thing we should do right now is rerun those arguments.” His aim was to “unify the country”, not divide it further, so he was “not proposing that the UK considers rejoining the EU”. But even if his headline focus is on the UK, Burnham knows Britain’s “economic stagnation, declining relative living standards and latent social discontent” are at least partly down to the huge Brexit hit to UK trade and investment, Taylor wrote. “Even without the compelling security and geopolitical reasons for rapprochement with the EU,” he argued, “closer engagement with Britain’s main export market would be a no-brainer to deliver healthier growth.” But how exactly, given the immovable red lines laid down in the Labour party’s last election manifesto – no single market, no customs union, no freedom of movement – might Burnham go about it? Starmer’s longed-for “reset” was all about security cooperation and easing Brexit trade barriers. Ironically, Burnham’s focus on industrialisation, regionalism and economic sovereignty could ultimately bring the UK closer to the EU. In a detailed analysis for the UK in a Changing Europe thinktank, Joël Reland argued that Burnham’s growth agenda, centred on domestic devolution rather than diplomacy, meant negotiations with the EU may drop down the list of UK priorities. But while the new prime minister may speak a lot less about trade access, his vision for building the UK’s “sovereign capabilities” – in fields such as AI, energy, digital infrastructure – closely mirrors the EU’s own “strategic autonomy” drive.
Burnham’s desire to reduce UK reliance on foreign-owned datacentres and US-centric tech policy aligns well with Brussels’ tech sovereignty package, perhaps leading to pragmatic UK-EU cooperation in areas such as critical minerals and cloud storage. In short, argued Reland, Burnham may sound markedly less pro-European than his predecessor in 10 Downing St, “but he is formulating an economic and security agenda which could bring London into closer line with Brussels”. If this happens, UK-EU relations could see occasional leaders’ summits replaced, for example, with project-based re-engagement via platforms such as the EU’s committee of the Regions, and stronger support for the UK-EU joint parliamentary assembly. At the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) thinktank, senior policy fellow Anthony Dworkin likewise observed that Burnham was likely to ground foreign policy very much in local economic realities, in a way Starmer never did. In the short term, Dworkin argued, the new government’s focus will certainly be on completing the three EU-UK agreements that were due to signed at a UK-EU summit meeting on 22 July, but will now be held sometime in the autumn. As Jennifer Rankin explained, the two sides are due to sign deals on reducing paperwork and certification for fresh food; linking emissions trading systems; and an exchange scheme allowing 18- to 30-year-olds to study and work in the EU and UK. Longer term, the ECFR suggested, Burnham’s drive for regional regeneration – such as green manufacturing in the north – could connect directly to EU supply chain partnerships, structurally repositioning the UK alongside the EU in key sectors. Jill Rutter at the Institute for Government observed that Starmer had spent substantial political capital on warm rhetoric toward the EU, but his intended reset had delivered only modest economic returns due to Labour’s structural red lines. Burnham would face an early choice, Rutter said, over “how much personal effort he puts into pulling this reset over the line – and what price he is prepared to pay for that – as well as how much emphasis he puts on further rounds”. In short, Andy Burnham’s pragmatic domestic industrial goals naturally overlap with EU policy. Without shouting about it, by aligning the UK with the EU’s own priorities, he may just achieve a quieter, but far more effective UK-EU partnership. We’ll see. *** Call the Doctor Turns out if you spend nearly four decades writing European allsorts from Athens to Aarhus and Prague to Poitiers, eventually someone gives you a strange-looking hat. Last week, I was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of London for my reporting on Europe. Personally, to be honoured for doing a job you love (well, most of the time) was, of course, doubly gratifying. But 10 years after the UK voted to leave the EU, it was also, I like to think, a nod to history’s biggest ever experiment in cooperation over conflict. Europe is, most certainly, not perfect. But the fact so many of you subscribe to this newsletter, and read the rest of the Guardian’s expanded European coverage, shows how much you think it matters – and never ceases to fascinate, surprise and frustrate. Stick with it. To receive the complete version of This Is Europe in your inbox every Wednesday, please subscribe here.
