The former chancellor Rachel Reeves has argued Britain’s future should be back in the European Union, saying Brexit has made the UK “poorer, weaker and less secure.”
In her first major intervention since leaving the Treasury when Andy Burnham took office, she said those forging a path back towards EU membership had to make compelling arguments to the public.
Reeves, who was sacked as chancellor by Burnham, said in an article for the Sunday Times that no one who worked with her in the Treasury could be in doubt about her pro-European instincts. “I am proud of the progress we have already made in strengthening our relationship with the European Union. Brexit has made us poorer, weaker and less secure,” she said.
“There is a debate to be had about our future relationship with Europe, and I welcome Andy Burnham’s leadership in facing up to this. No one in the Treasury ever doubted where my instincts were.”
The current focus for British negotiations is the EU summit later this month to seal an agreement to ease some trading restrictions and a youth mobility deal. But the prime minister has made it clear he wants to see a long-term and stable relationship with the bloc.
Burnham has said he believes there should be “honest discussion” about freedom of movement and that rejoining the single market could be done without the need for another referendum, if Labour put it in its manifesto. In contrast, he said fully rejoining would need another in-out poll.
In her article, Reeves said it was “incumbent on supporters of our re-entry to make the argument, demonstrate tangible benefits and to get the next steps right”.
At his last cabinet meeting, Burnham warned individual ministers not to express their opinions about how the government should approach Brexit, but said the Conservatives’ deal with Brussels had been more extreme than that promised in the 2016 referendum.
It follows reports that some ministers, including Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, have worries about the possibility of a revised deal and its impact on migration.
Burnham has set out a two-stage approach to reforming Brexit, beginning with any initial changes that will be within the scope of Labour’s 2024 manifesto – which committed to remaining outside the EU’s customs union and single market, and not reinstating freedom of movement – a process that will formally kick off when the prime minister attends the European summit.
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Anything more substantial would need to wait until after the next election, with Burnham saying he wanted a discussion on what this might entail.
As chancellor, Reeves was one of the first senior ministers to articulate that Brexit had damaged the British economy and its ability to grow. In her Mais lecture in March this year she said Brexit had “created profound uncertainty, raised new barriers to trade, and leaves Britain facing an additional danger today … The risk that we find ourselves stranded between powerful trading blocs, as globalisation retreats.”
