Nandy Wary of Rejoin-EU Debate as Burnham Cabinet Divisions Show
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said she wants to avoid "circular arguments" about rejoining the EU, exposing cabinet divisions over Andy Burnham's plan for a public conversation on Brexit before a Brussels reset meeting on November 20.
UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said she wants to avoid "circular arguments" about whether Britain should rejoin the EU, underlining divisions in Andy Burnham's cabinet over revisiting Brexit. She spoke in a Sunday morning television interview.
Nandy appeared to suggest she does not favor rejoining the trade bloc. She argued, though, that the prime minister should still pursue closer ties to fulfil the promises made at the time of the referendum.
"I do not believe that anybody wants to repeat circular arguments about in or out, leave or remain," she said. "I do think, though, that over the last decade we have let the British people down very badly."
Asked whether she wanted to go back in, Nandy replied: "I don't know if that's a choice we have." Her Wigan seat voted overwhelmingly to leave in 2016, and she is one of the most cautious members of the cabinet on reversing Brexit.
She did concede that Burnham is trying to address failings in the Brexit deal. In a separate interview she said it was important to "be honest" and say that "the deal that we got is not what we were promised".
Nandy stressed that there were "trade-offs and choices" to be made, involving a conversation with people across the country. She indicated that Brexit would be a key theme of the next election campaign.
She is one of a handful of cabinet ministers concerned about Burnham's plan for an "honest conversation" with the public. They are privately warning it could reopen a row that would only benefit Nigel Farage's Reform UK.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood are also cautious about pushing to fully rejoin.
Burnham will attend the European Political Community summit in Dublin. Downing Street sources said he would use it to get Labour's reset deal over the line and to meet many European leaders for the first time.
EU counterparts will privately expect him to set out his ambitions for further integration. Burnham has announced his intention to move beyond Labour's "red lines" on the bloc after the next election.
At a Brexit reset meeting in Brussels on November 20, agreements on agriculture and food, emissions trading and youth experience visas are expected to be confirmed. Burnham told a Sunday newspaper that there was more to come.
"This summit will show what we can achieve when we work together, but it doesn't need to be the end of our ambition," he said.
Officials will also discuss the agenda for the next round of the reset. It could include another attempt to join the EU's €150bn (£125bn) Safe defence fund, collaboration on law enforcement and borders, and visas for touring artists.
Soon after the Brussels meeting, Burnham is expected to give a speech setting out options for a closer relationship with the EU, arguing it would be in the UK's long-term interest. No 10 sources said he wanted to "frame the conversation, not go straight to the endgame" before testing public opinion.
Senior government figures say Burnham wants a mandate to start negotiations in Labour's next election manifesto. They say any subsequent referendum would be solely confirmatory.
"You can't ask people to vote on an undefined plan like in 2016. That was David Cameron's mistake," one said.
Michel Barnier, the EU's former chief Brexit negotiator, warned that London could not have the "single market à la carte" by choosing which of the four freedoms, including freedom of movement, it wanted. "There is no cherrypicking. There will be no possibility to have one freedom and not the other," he said.
