Blair's Call to Reopen the EU Question
Tony Blair has made the case that Britain ought to seek EU membership again within ten years, increasing pressure on Andy Burnham to drop Labour's unwillingness to look again at the 2016 referendum. The former prime minister wants Burnham's November ten-year plan to restore EU membership as a goal, a decade on from the leave vote. A Tony Blair Institute paper, A Path to Rejoining a Reformed Europe, proposes that the UK permit free movement and pay into the bloc as the cost of joining. This follows Burnham's refusal to exclude a rejoin pledge from the next Labour manifesto, though it risks reopening the divisions from ten years ago.[S1]
Writing in the paper's foreword, Blair maintains that Britain should make clear, provided the terms are suitable, that it intends to build a structured formal relationship with Europe and begin talks in which everything is on the table but nothing is settled until all is settled. TBI researchers state in the paper that Britain should, over the coming decade, pursue the goal of rejoining a substantially reformed EU. Blair joins a growing list of Labour figures backing re-entry. Defence secretary Wes Streeting has described the Brexit vote as a catastrophic mistake and argued the party should seek to rejoin, while Burnham told the Guardian last year he hoped to see the UK back in the EU in his lifetime.[S1]
Burnham's Caution and Party Divisions
Burnham has stated he does not want to seek membership of the union in the short term. Asked by reporters this week whether it might feature in the next election manifesto, he replied that it was a matter for another time. Others doubt the electoral sense of appearing to want to overturn the 2016 result, particularly in parts of the country where Reform UK has gained ground in recent years. Culture secretary Lisa Nandy rejected the idea earlier this year, cautioning against reviving the circular arguments the country had found itself in.[S1]
Yet polling indicates Labour might gain votes by committing to rejoin. A new megapoll by YouGov for the pro-EU group Best for Britain indicates the party could more than double its seats if it campaigns on re-entry at the next election. The survey of over 13,000 people, carried out in June before Burnham became prime minister, found that a membership pledge would help bring progressive voters together behind Labour without increasing Reform's support. The findings pointed to Labour rising from a projected 136 seats to 321, though those figures will have shifted since Burnham took office, giving the party its first poll lead in months.[S1]
TBI's Policy Proposals and Leverage
The TBI paper urges Britain to press for faster European market reforms, using the prospect of re-entry as leverage. It contends that pro-reform figures in Brussels would have a strong incentive to cooperate with Britain on a project aimed at making the EU more economically liberal and overhauling its energy and technology rules. It further suggests Burnham should abandon the government's red lines against rejoining, free movement, and the single market or a customs union. Instead, the paper says, the prime minister should commit only to adopting rules and initiatives that deliver economic or strategic benefit to the UK.[S1]
In recent years TBI has pushed for the UK to slow its drive towards net zero carbon emissions and strongly supports greater use of artificial intelligence in government. These stances have drawn attention to some of the institute's most prominent funders, among them technology billionaire Larry Ellison, and to its clients, which include the Saudi Arabian government.[S1]
