Andy Burnham has said he believes a “win-win” deal could be done with the EU that could be “more like the Brexit that people thought they were voting for in 2016”.
The prime minister was meeting fellow leaders at the European Political Community summit in Dublin, ahead of a keenly anticipated EU-UK summit next week, where he hopes to bring Britain closer to Europe.
At the bilateral summit the EU and UK hope to sign deals on food and drink, emissions trading and a youth mobility scheme, but the question of tuition fees for European students remains a stumbling block.
Burnham said: “I believe there is a good deal to be done that could be a win-win for Britain and Europe.
“The deal is not done, and there’ll be some long nights ahead in the next seven days.”
He said the reset would be about whether we can “take a step back to closer working relationships with Europe”.
Burnham added: “We ended up with a far harder Brexit, I think, than people thought they were getting when they went to the polls.”
The EU has said the prized food and drink deal and emissions-trading agreement may not enter into force without a deal on tuition fees in which European students would pay domestic rates.
Burnham said it was a package deal, but would not be drawn on whether he accepted the link. “I’m going to be fighting hard for these benefits for Britain in the next seven days … they will make a real difference. If I can do anything to address the cost of living crisis, I should be doing it.”
He has previously said the food and drink deal, which will ease Brexit red tape, will add 0.4% to British GDP.
The prime minister also said David Cameron had been wrong to argue that Britain’s problems had “nothing to do with Brexit”, adding there would be “long nights ahead” to negotiate a reset with the EU before the summit.
Cameron, the prime minister who lost the 2016 Brexit referendum, told Bloomberg News that Burnham should not seek to bring Britain back into the EU, arguing that the UK’s problems had nothing to do with its exit from the EU.
Asked about those remarks, Burnham said: “I think he is wrong to say that the low growth that we’ve had over the last decade has, quote, ‘nothing to do with Brexit’. I would say the evidence says otherwise.
“It feels like his intervention is more about unity in the Conservative party than it is about fighting for the British interests.”
Burnham has recently said he is open to rejoining the single market, customs union or to “go all the way” by rejoining the EU. He said a deeper relationship would be the outcome of future talks “and it will be in the outcome of that negotiation that then we will take a decision as a cabinet, on what, if anything, comes next”.
Earlier on Thursday, the EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said she wanted to see Britain rejoin the EU, but warned that negotiations would not be easy after the “trauma” of the Brexit years.
She said: “I would very much like to see Britain back in Europe, but, of course, we also have in the European Union, a lot of, I would say, trauma from Britain leaving, so the negotiations will not be that easy.”
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Burnham is expected to make the EU reset the centrepiece of his white-tie speech at the lord mayor’s banquet on Monday night – though it will range widely across foreign policy challenges.
No 10 sources said the speech would be focused on the upcoming Brussels summit – and look ahead to the next stage in 2027 – rather than outline what a more permanent close relationship might look like.
Officials at the UK-EU summit will also discuss the agenda for the next round of the reset, expected to focus on a joint migration pact.
It could also target collaboration on law enforcement and borders, visas for touring artists, and mutual recognition of qualifications.
Ministry of Justice officials are also trying to water down an EU ultimatum on halting the deportation of foreign national offenders. “This is the classic wheeze that the EU always pulls at the last minute of negotiations,” one Whitehall source said.
The next week is expected to be fraught with last-minute negotiations. Key will be access to Made in Europe, which has the potential to lock British firms out of continental supply chains and public contracts if no deal is done.
Negotiations could be challenging despite the lure of the UK making a potential concession on tuition fees in exchange for inclusion in the Made in Europe legislation.
The EU has long said there cannot be a deal on Made in Europe at the summit, because it has yet to finalise its own position.
The joint communique for 2027 is expected to call for strengthening efforts between the UK and the most exposed member states to the small boats crisis in the Channel.
This will centre on both the EU’s Channel action plan, already in place since June this year, and a possible framework for a wider bespoke EU-UK migration plan.
The UK is believed to be pushing for access to the Eurodac database, which carries the fingerprints of asylum seekers, as well as to the Schengen Information System (SIS), which records details on fugitives, missing people and stolen goods.
The UK was the third biggest user of SIS before it lost access through Brexit.
