Andy Burnham’s arrival in Downing Street on Monday is less a cause for celebration for his European Union counterparts than a test of whether Britain has finally reached the end of its decade-long Brexit psychodrama.
The UK’s seventh prime minister in 10 years will find no shortage of goodwill across the Channel.
Few Labour figures have spoken as openly about the damage Brexit has inflicted. Burnham has called it a “disaster”, said he hopes Britain rejoins the EU “in my lifetime”, and argued that leaving has weakened both economic growth and immigration control.
Shorts
More recently, however, he has insisted he will not seek to “re-run” the Brexit arguments, recognising the political reality that Britain remains deeply divided.
