Will Andy Burnham ask the dreaded Brexit question again?
A decade on from the vote to leave the European Union, there is still a sense that Britain is a divided country. Few politicians dare touch the subject with both Labour and Conservatives being torn apart by the issue.
However, the world has changed significantly since 2016. Britain and Europe are facing an increased threat to security. The war in Ukraine and the US now turning its back on European allies has brought home the dangers of isolationism.
As the winds shift in Westminster, it will be interesting to see how Andy Burnham shapes Britain’s relationship with the EU. Burnham was a Remainer and he made it known when it was politically expedient during his tenure as Mayor of Greater Manchester.
The current Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has brought Britain closer to the EU but stopped short of fully embracing the single bloc.
Given that there has been a generational shift over the past decade, those who wish for Britain to rejoin point to the result potentially looking different this time. There is a deep dissatisfaction with Britain’s exit from the EU, according to new polling of 18- to 28-year-olds conducted by the thinktank More in Common.
In yesterday’s newspaper, The Yorkshire Post’s well respected columnist Andrew Vine wrote that people who voted for Brexit “were the unwitting victims of the worst confidence trick in British political history”.
Given the strength of feelings, will Burnham be of the opinion that it's time to ask the public that dreaded question again, ‘are we in or are we out’?