Will Labour’s leadership hopefuls reverse Brexit? What Burnham and Streeting have said about rejoining the EU

Just days after suffering a series of major defeats to Nigel Farage’s pro-Brexit Reform UK Party in the UK election, Labor is again at loggerheads over Brexit.

The party’s culture secretary Lisa Nandy has accused leadership candidate Wes Streeting of restarting ‘Brexit wars’ within the party.

Here we look at where Sir Keir Starmer’s successors stand on the European Union and what they have said in the past.

Wes Street

Even as the former health secretary announced he would enter the Labor leadership contest, he made his opening statement about becoming prime minister an appeal to Britain. rejoin the European Union.

When it comes to Brexit, he said leaving the EU was a “disastrous mistake”.

Stating that England should be assertive about establishing a new special relationship with the bloc, he argued that England’s future lies in Europe and one day returning to the EU.

“This has left us less rich, less powerful and less in control than at any point since the Industrial Revolution,” Mr Streeting said.

“The greatest economic opportunity we have ever had is on our doorstep. We need a special new relationship with the EU, because Britain’s future is in Europe and one day it will return to the European Union.” he added.

However, he made it clear that this could only happen if a new mandate was secured, as was the case in the general election.

Andy Burnham

Mr Streeting’s stance on Brexit has put pressure on Andy Burnham, the leading candidate to replace Sir Keir in the event of a standoff.

The Mayor of Manchester wants to become Prime Minister but first he must win a seat in Parliament in a tough by-election in Makerfield, which voted to leave the EU in 2016.

On Saturday, Mr Burnham’s allies reportedly suggested he “won’t play a big role in Europe” in his speech to voters there.

At last year’s Labor Party conference he said he wanted Britain to rejoin the bloc, saying: “I hope it happens in my lifetime… People are more prosperous when they are part of unions. That’s my belief and I’ll say it openly.”

But Mr Streeting’s call meant he was asked about Brexit in an interview on Saturday night. Asked if he was in favor of rejoining the EU, he told ITV: “I’ve said there’s a case for it in the long term, but I’m not advocating it in this by-election.”

Angela Rayner

The former deputy prime minister has refused to revisit Brexit.

He recently told ITV that the country should not go back to debating whether we are “in or out”.

But he said the government needed to address the challenges the separation caused, especially for businesses.

He said: “Many businesses are saying this is a challenge, that Brexit and the way it is being implemented is challenging their ability to be competitive in accessing the EU market and so we need to address these challenges without going back to the old debate – are we in or are we out?”

Ms Rayner campaigned to remain in the EU during the 2016 Brexit referendum.

After the result of the vote, she said that although she was “fiercely pro-EU” she was “also a democrat”.