Inside the Brexit deal endgame as Burnham retreats on rejoining the EU

Detailed summary

By focusing on bread-and-butter issues such as the cost of living, the Prime Minister wanted to strike a contrast with his predecessor, Sir Keir Starmer, whom some detractors…

Andy Burnham is about to find out what every Prime Minister since Margaret Thatcher has found out – the issue of Europe does not go away.

He is facing a make-or-break week which could end in triumph with a historic new deal with the EU to trumpet on Friday, or humiliation after the optimistic talk of closer ties with our biggest trading partner ends in failure.

With a deal said to be “95 per cent there”, Burnham himself has said No 10’s negotiators face some “long nights ahead” to get that agreement over the line. To do that, Burnham is hinting he is ready to make some big concessions.

But with closer ties comes greater opposition, and already there are grumblings among his MPs and Cabinet that have forced him to put the brakes on his rejoin rhetoric, while big beasts, such as David Cameron, dust up for a fight.

When Burnham arrived in Downing Street in July he did so with the firm intention of pouring his energies into domestic affairs.

By focusing on bread-and-butter issues such as the cost of living, the Prime Minister wanted to strike a contrast with his predecessor, Sir Keir Starmer, whom some detractors dubbed “never here Keir” for his globetrotting activities.

But Burnham’s decision to prioritise closer ties with the EU – and the grand language of arguing “everything is on the table” including rejoin – has let a genie out of the bottle that will be very difficult to put back in.

After flying to the COP31 climate summit in Antalya, Turkey, for a blink-and-you’ll miss it appearance on Thursday, the Prime Minister travelled directly to the European Political Community summit in Dublin for last-minute talks aimed at smoothing the way for next week’s summit in Brussels where the much-vaunted deal is expected to be signed.

In Dublin – where the conference venue was illuminated with shamrock green lights – Burnham greased the wheels for Friday’s summit by holding talks with leaders including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Italian Prime Minister…

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