One of the architects of Keir Stamer’s Brexit red lines has called for Andy Burnham to abandon them at the next election, saying a new relationship with the EU would protect the UK from global threats.
The call is the latest voice from a prominent figure in Starmer’s administration for a faster transition to a far closer European relationship, after the former chancellor Rachel Reeves said it was right for Burnham to consider rejoining.
Chris Ward, one of Starmer’s closest confidants in politics and one of the ministers who worked on the EU reset, said that it was the security relationship that meant a change was now imperative.
The Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven said it was now time to give a “a dignified retirement” to the red lines, which rule out rejoining the EU, the single market, the customs union and restoring freedom of movement.
Ward also suggested there was little compelling argument for rejoining the single market without full EU membership, saying he had “never understood the argument for the latter without the former”.
But he said the main reason for abandoning the red lines was that the UK “could no longer rely on the Americans” which was a major geopolitical shift that merited an entire reappraisal of Britain’s diplomatic relationships. “That question was unthinkable in 2016, but it is unavoidable in 2026,” he wrote in an article for the Guardian.
Ward, who was Starmer’s chief adviser as shadow Brexit secretary and who co-authored the red lines in Labour’s manifesto in 2024, said that they had now outlived their usefulness and should no longer be part of Labour’s future thinking.
He remains close to the former prime minister and said that the drive to renew the relationship with the EU may prove the defining political moment of this autumn.
He said the party had agreed upon the red lines in the manifesto because they were “designed precisely to close down the debate and to narrow the target that Brexit had become for Labour”.
“I still believe that strategically this was the right course for Labour, and the reset deal that – touch wood – will get over the line at next month’s UK-EU summit will demonstrate that real benefits can be delivered within those red lines, whether cheaper prices for businesses, a youth mobility scheme or the return of the Erasmus+ scheme.
“By the next general election, however, those red lines will have served their purpose. They should be given a well-earned and dignified retirement. Frankly, they no longer speak to the world as it is in 2026, let alone as it may be over the years to come.”
Ward said it was well known that rejoining the EU or single market would have economic benefits but said supporters of rejoining should make a different argument.
“Pinning the case for a new relationship on old arguments risks both the same result and missing what’s really changed,” he wrote.
“Instead, its the huge geopolitical shifts and, above all, the new security and cyber threats the UK and Europe now face day in, day out that demand we now reassess the depth and nature of relationship.”
after newsletter promotion
He said Starmer had twice had to scramble alliances together – on Ukraine and on the strait of Hormuz – because “we could no longer rely on the Americans”.
“It would now be brave in the extreme to continue to pin our future security – and that of Europe – on the outcome of US elections, or the false hope that whoever is in the White House we can still bank on the US as we did in 2016, let alone 1945.”
Ward said there should be public debate on whether the UK should formally rejoin or seek a form of associate membership like Canada.
But he said the prime minister will “need to be clear as to why now is the right time to reopen the Brexit debate, what we are seeking, and why it is so important to our national interest. A re-run of the tired arguments of 2016 won’t do that. Defending red lines designed for 2020 won’t do that either. But appreciating the urgent strategic challenges of the decades to come just might.”
Burnham will attend the European Political Community summit in Dublin on Thursday, expected to be used to see Labour’s reset deal over the line and to meet many European leaders for the first time.
Burnham will also meet European leaders on the sidelines to set out his ambitions for further integration after he announced his intention to seek a closer and more permanent relationship – including potentially rejoining the bloc.
At a Brexit reset meeting on 20 November in Brussels, the UK will sign new agreements on agriculture and food, emissions trading and a youth mobility scheme.
The prime minister is then expected to give a speech after the summit on options for the future relationship. Burnham has said previously an option to rejoin the single market could be offered in a Labour manifesto but fully rejoining would need a referendum.
