Business secretary says UK needs to understand direction of EU before signing up to closer relationship – as it happened | Politics
Jonathan Reynolds says UK needs to know more about where EU heading before it opts for much closer relationship
Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, has suggested the UK needs to know more about where the EU is heading before it signs up to a much closer relationship.
He made the comment in an interview with the Sun, a day after John Healey, the chancellor, also hinted that he might have reservations about Andy Burnham’s ambitions for a new relationship with the EU undoing the damage done by Brexit.
Burnham is attending a summit with the EU next month where new agreements on food standards, energy and youth mobility will be the main focus. There is strong support for all these initiatives in cabinet.
But Burnham also wants a public debate on how the UK could move to a closer relationship with the EU after the next election, when – if it wants – Labour will be able to dump the 2024 manifesto pledges ruling out joining the single market or the customs union.
Burnham has not said what he wants to propose in Labour’s next manifesto, and he insists ultimately the public will decide, but he has said that he would like the UK to rejoin the EU in his lifetime and he seems open to trying to rejoin the single market in the next parliament.
Asked by the Sun if he shared Burnham’s dream of rejoining the EU, Reynolds replied:
I genuinely can’t answer that, because I don’t know what the future of the EU is – because [of] some of the very strong political currents in member states.
For me, it’s an approach to issues. What is their approach to how they regulate technology, AI? How dynamic will the economy be?
Sophia Sleigh, who wrote up the comments, said Reynolds was referring to the rise of far-right populist parties in Europe, which could fundamentally change and weaken the EU.
Although Reynolds’ comments were prompted by a question about rejoining the EU, his concerns would also apply to a proposal to join the single market.
Healey is also distinctly less pro-European than Burnham. In interviews yesterday, he did not accept that joining the single market would automatically be good for growth, he stressed the importance of accepting the referendum decision and making the best of the current relationship, and said he did not expect the UK to rejoin the EU in his lifetime.
In a bid to stop ministers disagreeing in public about the EU, Burnham sent them a letter earlier this week telling them to stay “disciplined” and not to “advocate for specific options” as the debate on the future UK-EU relationship gets under way.
Key events
Afternoon summary
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Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Welsh first minister, has claimed that Andy Burnham has now accepted in principle the case for the Welsh government to get greater borrowing powers. (See 3.59pm.) He was speaking after they met at the national economic council meeting in Glasgow.
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Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, has suggested the UK needs to know more about where the EU is heading before it signs up to a much closer relationship. (See 1.28pm.)
For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.
Ap Iorwerth claims Burnham has now accepted in principle that Welsh government should get more borowing powers
Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Welsh first minister, has released his readout from his meeting with Andy Burnham. Breaking with convention (these readouts are normally rather bland), he has included some news in his.
There was an encouraging consensus that the fiscal and borrowing powers which have for so long put Wales at a disadvantage compared with other UK nations must be revised as a matter of urgency. I welcome the prime minister’s comments that this is now a matter of how and when.
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He said he told Burnham that “further devolution within Wales is a matter for the Senedd and only the Senedd” – which sounded like a rather blunt ‘stay in your lane” response to Burnham’s “regional empowerment” proposals.
The Downing Street readout did not mention any of these issues. It just repeated some of what was in the Swinney one about the NEC meeting (see 3.28pm), and said Cardiff would host the next NEC meeting in spring 2027.
Burnham and Swinney agree ‘Westminster doesn’t work’ – but remain divided over what sort of devolution offers solution
John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, has now issued a statement about today’s national economic council [NEC] in Glasgow, and Downing Street has issued a readout about Andy Burnham’s bilateral meeting with Swinney. Reading them together, three points emerge.
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Swinney and Burnham were both positive about the meeting, and sounded keen to be constructive not confrontational. No 10 said both leaders agreed the NEC meeting had been “extremely positive”, and Swinney said it was “a welcome start of work to develop the UK government’s new principle of ‘devolving by default’”.
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But there is still a problem because, although they both want devolution, it’s not the same devolution. Swinney’s statement is all about the devolution of power from Westminster to Scotland. No 10’s is mostly about “regional empowerment” (devolution within Scotland), although it does say the PM agreed to “review and respond to a range of issues raised by the first minister”.
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They agreed to differ on independence. The No 10 statement restates Burnham’s position that a second independence referendum is off the table. Swinney could have chosen to have a row about this, but he didn’t. While not at all resiling from his pro-independence position, he politely said: “While the prime minister and I disagree on independence, we do agree that Westminster does not work for people in Scotland.”
For the record, here is the full readout from the No 10 spokesperson.
The prime minister met with the first minister of Scotland in Glasgow following a meeting of the National Economic Council today.
The prime minister and first minister agreed the meeting at the NEC had been extremely positive. They said it had been a valuable exercise in starting the process of exploring how each government could contribute to regional empowerment, reindustrialisation and achieving good growth in every postcode.
They agreed that now there would be a policy sprint led by No 10 North, involving officials from both governments, to take this agenda forward.
Outside that process, the prime minister said the UK government would review and respond to a range of issues raised by the first minister.
This would not include a second independence referendum in Scotland, which the prime minister has repeatedly made clear is off the table.
And here is the readout from Swinney.
While the prime minister and I disagree on independence, we do agree that Westminster does not work for people in Scotland. And when the people of Scotland take issues into their own hands, the best outcomes will come about.
To that end, I will work constructively and collaboratively with him to devolve more powers from Westminster to Scotland – as long as those proposals drive economic growth that is felt in higher wages, better jobs, more opportunities for business to start and expand, and support with the cost of living.
Today’s meeting of the national economic council was a welcome start of work to develop the UK Government’s new principle of ‘devolving by default’ and the prime minister has been clear that he will not bypass the Scottish parliament in this endeavour.
I welcome that commitment, and look forward to our governments jointly developing a plan to consider further devolution to Scotland that will boost economic growth.
Rise in rough sleeping numbers for London ‘stark reminder’ of challenge facing Burnham, campaigners say
A rise in rough sleeping in London is a “stark reminder of the huge challenge” Andy Burnham faces in his pledge to get people off the streets, campaigners have said. As the Press Association reports, data shows there were 4,678 people recorded as sleeping rough in the capital in July to September this year. PA says:
While this is a slight drop of 1% on the same three-month period in 2025, the figure has risen by almost a fifth (18%) on the previous quarter this year.
The Combined Homelessness and Information Network (Chain) figures, published today, showed that there were 819 people classed as living on the streets (a separate category) – a rise of 8% on the same time last year and up by a fifth (20%) on the previous quarter.
Rick Henderson, chief executive of Homeless Link, the national membership body for frontline homelessness services, said: “The increase in rough sleeping across London, and particularly of those spending longer on our streets, is a stark reminder of the huge challenge London and the wider country face in turning the prime minister’s ambition to end rough sleeping into action.”
Burnham says he does not want Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to be ‘left behind’ as England embraces fiscal devolution
Speaking to reporters after the national economic council meeting, Andy Burnham said he did not want Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to lose out on the changes that will give more financial powers to mayors in England.
Referring to the plans in the fiscal devolution roadmap, he said:
The agenda is moving quickly in England. There were further measures in the budget around regional devolution across all of England, and I don’t want to see Scotland left behind. I don’t want to see Wales left behind, but also crucially, I don’t want to see Northern Ireland left behind.
So it’s really important that we all move at the same pace together. And I won’t allow anything to delay that. Growth can’t wait. People need to see improvements in employment and in living standards in all parts of the UK.
Referring to the absence of Northern Ireland’s first minister and deputy first minister, he said:
It’s disappointing that the first minister and deputy first minister of Northern Ireland weren’t here. There was some representation, but we will continue the discussions too with Stormont about how do we take forward the same ideas.
Burnham says UK government to consider further devolution of employment support to Scotland and Wales
Andy Burnham has said the UK government will consider further devolution of employment support to Scotland and Wales.
Speaking after chairing a meeting of the national economic council, Burnham said:
We had a good discussion today on two fronts.
One around reindustrialisation, and the offer of more devolution of innovation funding to the regional level. It’s about creating those structures at a regional level, and that’s a matter for Scotland and Wales to decide what that looks like in both countries.
It’s not for me to impose or try to interfere there. But once there is a vehicle, that can be backed by the Scottish government, it can be backed by the UK government …
Secondly, we had a conversation about employment support, and particularly young people. There are too many young people out of work here in Scotland, in Wales, and in England too.
It’s a very big agenda that’s coming towards us. We need to localise as much as we can support for young people, employment support to help them back to work.
Now, as part of those discussions that will follow this meeting of the national economic council, we need to look at what are [the] arrangements for further devolution of employment support, particularly for young people in both Scotland and Wales.
Jonathan Reynolds says UK needs to know more about where EU heading before it opts for much closer relationship
Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, has suggested the UK needs to know more about where the EU is heading before it signs up to a much closer relationship.
He made the comment in an interview with the Sun, a day after John Healey, the chancellor, also hinted that he might have reservations about Andy Burnham’s ambitions for a new relationship with the EU undoing the damage done by Brexit.
Burnham is attending a summit with the EU next month where new agreements on food standards, energy and youth mobility will be the main focus. There is strong support for all these initiatives in cabinet.
But Burnham also wants a public debate on how the UK could move to a closer relationship with the EU after the next election, when – if it wants – Labour will be able to dump the 2024 manifesto pledges ruling out joining the single market or the customs union.
Burnham has not said what he wants to propose in Labour’s next manifesto, and he insists ultimately the public will decide, but he has said that he would like the UK to rejoin the EU in his lifetime and he seems open to trying to rejoin the single market in the next parliament.
Asked by the Sun if he shared Burnham’s dream of rejoining the EU, Reynolds replied:
I genuinely can’t answer that, because I don’t know what the future of the EU is – because [of] some of the very strong political currents in member states.
For me, it’s an approach to issues. What is their approach to how they regulate technology, AI? How dynamic will the economy be?
Sophia Sleigh, who wrote up the comments, said Reynolds was referring to the rise of far-right populist parties in Europe, which could fundamentally change and weaken the EU.
Although Reynolds’ comments were prompted by a question about rejoining the EU, his concerns would also apply to a proposal to join the single market.
Healey is also distinctly less pro-European than Burnham. In interviews yesterday, he did not accept that joining the single market would automatically be good for growth, he stressed the importance of accepting the referendum decision and making the best of the current relationship, and said he did not expect the UK to rejoin the EU in his lifetime.
In a bid to stop ministers disagreeing in public about the EU, Burnham sent them a letter earlier this week telling them to stay “disciplined” and not to “advocate for specific options” as the debate on the future UK-EU relationship gets under way.
At the Downing Street lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson was asked to give more details of the sort of “regional empowerment” that could be offered to Scotland and Wales on the basis of today’s summit. The spokesperson did not give any detail beyond what No 10 has said already (see 9.11am) and, like the PM (see 12.05pm), he said it was ultimately up to Scotland and Wales to say what they wanted. It sounds like we won’t be getting specific proposals today.
Patrick Stewart ‘one of the very best’, says No 10 in tribute
Downing Street has paid tribute to Patrick Stewart following the actor’s death. At the daily lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson gave a comment that was a bit more extensive than the usual No 10 contribution when a great British celebrity dies. The spokesperson said that was because Andy Burnham feels strongly about the importance of actors.
The spokesperson said:
The prime minister was very sad to hear of the passing of Sir Patrick Stewart.
As a former culture secretary he knows how much Britain’s greatest actors mean to the country, and Sir Patrick was one of the very best.
He never forgot his working-class Yorkshire roots. He brought joy to millions, and he always stood up for what he believed in, including through his campaigning to help those affected by domestic violence.
Our thoughts are with his family and friends.
Here is our story, by Adrian Horton and Benjamin Lee, about the death of the Star Trek star.
Burnham wrong to think Manchester-style regional devolution would work for Wales, says former Welsh Labour minister
Lee Waters, a former Labour minister in the Welsh government and a member of the Senedd until May this year, thinks it is a mistake for Andy Burnham to think Manchester-style devolution (greater powers for mayors) will help in Wales. Referring to posts earlier summarising Burnham’s thinking (see 9.11am, 9.33am and 12.05pm), Waters sent me this note.
Just a reminder that when it comes to Wales, we are not comparing like with like. The term ‘region’ in an English context typically refers to an area covering between 1.5 and 3 million people. In Wales, regions cover much less dense areas. The Swansea Bay city region captures some 700,000 people, and similarly North Wales around 690,000 people. In Mid-Wales sheep outnumber people by 7:1. Only the Cardiff city region is comparable to English tiers, and even then at the lower end: around 1.5 million people.
Transposing an English mayoral worldview onto a very different political geography just doesn’t work. Wales may be a similar population size to the PM’s old manor but that’s where the parallel ends.
Andy Burnham talks about the regions of England and Wales interchangeably but the role the new prime minister champions for metro mayors is, in many respects, already performed by the Welsh government. Powers over skills, employment support, economic development, housing investment and major spending programmes sit at an all-Wales strategic level (covering a similar population size to Greater Manchester.)
His argument for England is that powers should flow from Westminster to city regions because they operate at an economically meaningful scale. Yet when the PM turns to Wales, he seems to suggest that powers already devolved to Cardiff Bay should be dispersed further down the system.
But notably he is not calling on his successor as the mayor of Greater Manchester, Bev Craig, to fragment the powers of the Greater Manchester combined authority and redistribute them amongst its ten constituent councils. On the contrary, the whole logic of the Greater Manchester model rests on concentrating strategic authority at a regional level.
Yet the implication of his comments is that Wales should move in the opposite direction.
Burnham tells devolved governments he wants to ‘draw a line’, leading to better relationship
Andy Burnham delivered his opening remarks at the national economic council meeting in Glasgow on camera. Here are the key points.
What I want to do is set the tone which is one of positive offer to work with both the Scottish and Welsh governments, in terms of looking at a model of deeper devolution in Scotland and Wales.
Referring to John Swinney and Rhun ap Iorwerth using their first names, not their titles, Burnham also said that he hoped they had seen enough of him as PM to know that he was serious about wanting “problem solving rather than point scoring”. He also said he wanted to “draw a line”, implying previous relations with the devolved governments weren’t ideal.
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He said that, while he wanted “deeper devolution” (see 9.11am), “obviously, it’s for the devolved governments to determine the shape and the structure of that”.
Obviously, speaking as a former mayor, I saw how Greater Manchester was able to go on a very different track to the one that we’d been on pre the arrival of devolved powers in Greater Manchester.
I’ll be honest, I looked at the world differently, and perhaps more from Scotland and Wales’ point of view, when we were making that case for a greater level of power.
He said, using devolved powers, as mayor he was able to set “high ambitions” for Manchester – “and a decade on the results are there to see.”
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He said that Britain in the past had not been particularly good at handling “industrial transition” and that he wanted to change this. He recalled visiting the site of the Ravenscraig steelworks near Motherwell recently, saying:
I was on the site of Ravenscraig and … I used to hear that word in the news when I was growing up. I only then, when I was there, understood the scale of what that industry once was, and how the country didn’t help those communities through industrial transition.
You could say the same of Port Talbot in south Wales, he said. He said what was happening in Port Talbot was a model of industrial transition.
John Swinney, the Scottish first minister, and Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Welsh first minister, arrived together for the national economic council meeting in Glasgow. The SNP and Plaid Cymru are sister parties, and recently Swinney, ap Iorwerth and the Sinn Féin leaders Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O’Neill held a meeting in Cardiff that was characterised by opponents as a summit to dismantle the UK.
Rhun ap Iorwerth says he will ask Burnham to give Wales same devolved powers as Scotland at Glasgow summit
This is from Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Welsh first minister, summarising what he will be putting to Andy Burnham at their meeting in Glasgow today.
Today, I represent Wales at the National Economic Council in Glasgow.
This is an opportunity for the UK Prime Minister to prove his commitment to a respect agenda that works both ways.
That means committing to not undermining the Senedd and to stop treating Wales as a region of England.
I will urge the Prime Minister to commit to a range of measures to improve the lives of people in Wales.
These include:
📈 A new Growth Partnership between the Welsh Government and the UK Government to boost prosperity in every part of our country.
💰 Fairer funding settlement.
🏴 Devolving the same powers as Scotland through a new Wales Bill.
🚂 And honouring, without delay, his commitment of £14bn for Welsh railways.
And that’s to name just a few of our demands.
Under the Plaid Cymru Welsh Government, Wales will never stay silent on issues that affect our communities.
Voters regard Healey’s budget as one of fairest for years, poll suggests
Yesterday the Institute for Fiscal Studies (see here) and the Resolution Foundation (see here) delivered fairly negative assessments of the budget. But mostly the gloom was triggered by the thinktanks said about the overall state of the economy and the public finances; they were critical of John Healey for deferring difficult choices, but less hostile about the decisions he did actually announce.
However, according to YouGov, voters are quite positive. They regard it as one of the fairest budgets for years.
This is how Dylan Difford explains the figures in his YouGov write-up.
The public’s initial reaction to John Healey’s first budget is in some key respects broadly positive, with nearly half of Britons (45%) regarding the budget as being fair, relative to just 20% seeing the measures announced as not fair.
This is a notable improvement on last year, when Rachel Reeves’ second budget was declared ‘not fair’ by a near-inverse margin of 48% to 21%. In fact, on this measure, this is one of the most positively received budgets in recent times. In data going back to 2010, only George Osborne’s first budget in 2010 and Rishi Sunak’s Covid budgets of 2020 and March 2021 have been judged ‘fair’ by a greater proportion of Britons (50-55%).
The Covid budgets were both giveaway, rescue budgets, and so it is not surprising they polled well. Osborne’s first budget was an austerity budget, and it is not a model popular with Labour MPs, but it probably polled well on fairness because the pain was spread across all groups in society.
The YouGov figures also show that only 15% of people think their family finances will improve as a result of the budget. That may not sound much but, as Difford says, “this is a sharp and favourable contrast with last November’s budget, which 50% of Britons believed would leave them and their family worse off, compared to a mere 3% feeling they’d be better off.”
In fact, Healey and his first budget outperform Rachel Reeves and her budget last year on every measure assessed in the polling.
Yesterday one of the criticisms of the budget from the Resolution Foundation was that the energy cost of living support package helped the rich almost as much as the poor. That meant it was “poorly targeted”, said the RF, applying a progressive, social justice definition of fairness. What the YouGov poll suggests is that voters as a whole judge fairness differently; it is probably precisely because most households get the £100 energy payment that people regard it as fair.
In their London Playbook briefing for Politico yesterday, Sam Blewett and Megan McElroy said Healey used focus groups extensively before finalising his measures.
Government officials say they focus-grouped all this relentlessly. Playbook was told these sessions helped convince ministers to go for wider support payments for council tax bands A-D rather than the initial plans to go with something more targeted. It was the supposedly better-off voters who were complaining about the pinch as well.
The polling showed it worked.
MoD says under new offset policy foreign firms will only get big defence contracts if they spend equivalent amount in UK
Wes Streeting, the defence secretary, was on the interview round this morning, announcing a new aspect of defence procurement policy. The Ministry of Defence is now saying that, if overseas suppliers win UK defence contracts, they will be required to spend the equivalent amount in the UK.
Explaining the policy, the MoD says:
British workers, businesses and apprentices will benefit from major changes which will see more defence work carried out in the UK thanks to the launch of a world-leading Offsets policy.
Under the new rules, overseas companies that win significant UK defence contracts will be required to invest back into Britain, through new British jobs and apprenticeships, opening UK factories, investing in domestic suppliers, transferring technology and innovation know-how.
This means contracts worth over £50m will be considered for offsets. The contractors will be required to deliver such benefits to the UK that could reach the same value as the contract, for example a £100m contract could see new jobs, facilities, or skills training up to the same £100m value in the UK.
The government is prioritising buying British defence contracts wherever possible. Where it must buy defence equipment from overseas, this new approach will ensure British workers and businesses still benefit.
John Healey, the chancellor, and Streeting are formally announcing this on a visit to BAE Systems Scotstoun in Glasgow today.
The MoD says countries like Poland, Norway and the Netherlands use similar offset policies. Further details of how this will work are set out in an offset policy paper published today.
Streeting said:
Every pound we invest in defence should be judged by what it does for Britain. That’s why we are backing British by buying British wherever we can.
Even when that is not possible, we are acting to ensure that any investment brings jobs, skills and investment back home, strengthening our national security by boosting our domestic industry.
In the past, the conventional globalist, free market approach to defence procurement operated on the basis that cost and quality were all that mattered and that, if a foreign firm could supply kit better and more cheaply than anyone else, that was enough. But the US is not the only country that has become protectionist in recent years, and this is a good example of Europe prioritising local employment in government procurement.
John Swinney urges Burnham to devolve more powers to Scottish government
In his statement ahead of the devolution summit in Glasgow today, Andy Burnham made it clear that he is interested in transferring more power from Edinburgh to Glasgow. (See 9.11am.) But John Swinney, the Scottish first minister, would rather talk about devolving further powers from London to Edinburgh. He issued this statement ahead of the meeting.
The prime minister has made devolution a central focus for his government. However the UK government must ensure that any devolution proposals respect devolution in Scotland. That means working with the Scottish government.
The Scottish government has put forward substantive proposals to the UK government on areas where further devolution would help grow Scotland’s economy and I will press the prime minister, and his government, to work with us to deliver those proposals.
The SNP wants Scotland to be fully independent (the ultimate version of devolution). But, pending that, it is also calling for the Scottish parliament to have power over policy areas currently reserved to London. Greater control over taxation, immigration, employment law and energy policy are particular priorities.
Burnham admits he would have liked more radical first budget
Andy Burnham has admitted his first budget as prime minister was not as radical as he would have liked because of the economic uncertainty facing the country, Kiran Stacey reports.
Burnham says he wants to offer more ‘regional empowerment’ ahead of devolution summit with Scottish and Welsh leaders
Good morning. Andy Burnham is in Glasgow today for a meeting with the leaders from Scotland and Wales and he says he wants to use it to talk about “the next stage of devolution”. According to the overnight briefing from No 10, he is less interested in giving more powers to the devolved parliaments and more interested in promoting “regional empowerment” in their countries.
In his pre-summit statement, Burnham says:
Through No 10 North, we are rewiring the state. I want to make sure every city and region in the United Kingdom is part of that.
Today I’ll be making an offer to the governments of each nation. Put politics aside and work in partnership with the UK government to develop models of regional empowerment that ensure communities can use their own strengths to unlock their potential.
This is the next stage of devolution. Together, there is no limit to what we can achieve.
Burnham is speaking at a time when Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have since the May elections (when Plaid Cymru won in Wales) for the first time had first ministers from nationalist parties that want to break away from the UK. John Swinney, the Scottish first minister, and Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Welsh first minister, will be at the meeting today. But Michelle O’Neill, the Sinn Féin first minister from Northern Ireland won’t be there. She holds power jointly with a DUP deputy, and both of them have to stay away because the DUP has vetoed their attendance due to an ongoing row about Drumcree. Some officials will attend instead.
Downing Street says at today’s meeting Burnham “will say that devolution by default shouldn’t be about the transfer of powers from one parliament to another but should go deeper within nations to empower all places and communities who know best what they need to grow and access opportunities.”
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Andy Burnham chairs a meeting of the national economic council in Glasgow.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Afternoon (UK time): Ed Miliband is attending a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in Atlanta in the US.
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