One of the many complaints levelled against Keir Starmer is that he is fundamentally bad at politics; he doesn’t know how to win people over, keep voters on his side. But on current showing he is a darned sight better at the game than is Andy Burnham. Whatever possessed the leadership hopeful at the weekend to suggest that he favoured rejoining the EU? Even the most basic research on Makerfield, the constituency he must win before he can make a bid to become Labour leader and prime minister, would have told him that it voted Leave in 2016 by a margin of two thirds to one.
Having failed to find that out, he was forced into a hasty retreat yesterday, saying that he ‘respects’ Brexit. I fear it may be too late; he has already energised the Reform UK campaign. Given that Burnham starts with only a 5,000 majority over Reform UK – which was won during Labour’s 2024 landslide – it is not looking good for Burnham.
Whatever possessed the leadership hopeful at the weekend to suggest that he favoured rejoining the EU?
But it isn’t just Makerfield. Across the country, there are rather fewer votes in a policy of rejoining the EU than the polls might suggest. Notionally, there is a healthy majority in favour of rejoining the EU. A YouGov poll last month found the country 55 per cent in favour of rejoining and 38 per cent against. Among Labour voters it was 74 per cent in favour and 16 per cent against. How tempting, then, for a Labour leadership candidate to do what Streeting has done and what Burnham seemed to do initially: suggest that they would make rejoining the EU official Labour party policy, perhaps being included in the next manifesto.
