Andy Burnham says he will not try to return UK to EU | Andy Burnham

Andy Burnham has said he will not try to return Britain to the EU, saying Britain would be “stuck in a permanent stalemate if we argue all the time”.

In his first major speech since the by-election race was announced, the Greater Manchester mayor said he would have a “relentless internal focus” at Makerfield, saying: “Let’s fix our own country. Let’s get it working again. Let’s get it back to where people want it.””

The comments came after potential leadership rival Wes Streeting said Britain should rejoin the EU, his first major intervention since resigning as health secretary. “My view is that Brexit is damaging, but I also believe that the last thing we need to do now is to bring these debates back to the fore,” Burnham said.

Burnham said during the by-election campaign that he wanted to turn the national spotlight to Makerfield and the north-west and that his campaign against Reformation would focus on what could change in such places.

“I would like to apologize to the residents of the Makerfield constituency for the circus that is about to come to the town and some of the inconvenience they will experience as a result,” he said.

“But on the other hand, I also want to say to them: I hope you think it’s a good thing that the places that make up this constituency, long forgotten by national politics, are finally at the center of the national debate. And for places in this constituency, you can read about many of the similar places in your own constituency.”

“Let’s put them at the top of the agenda for the first time in a very long time. And I hope this by-election will do just that. My plan for Makerfield will be ambitious and show how we lift up its people and places over the next decade.””

Burnham said he would argue that places like Makerfield have been failing for four decades.

“Deindustrialization in the 1980s was devastating for places across Makerfield. Deregulation, privatization and austerity followed,” he said. “All this adds up to 40 years of neoliberalism that has not been kind to the north of England.

“Forty years of trickle-down economics didn’t end up leaking very much into places like Platt Bridge or Hindley. In fact, that system pulled wealth out of those places and into the hands of people whose lives were already pretty good.”

“I believe a by-election is very necessary. In my view, it’s time for a much bigger debate about how politics needs to change for it to work properly in the north of England, because it doesn’t. It isn’t, and that’s what we need to focus on. People are losing faith in politics.”