{"id":466452,"date":"2026-10-01T07:00:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T05:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/10\/01\/burnham-contro-il-tabu-ladesione-allue-e-sul-tavolo\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T10:46:48","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T08:46:48","slug":"burnham-breaks-the-taboo-eu-membership-is-back-on-the-table","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/10\/01\/burnham-breaks-the-taboo-eu-membership-is-back-on-the-table\/","title":{"rendered":"Burnham breaks the taboo: EU membership is back on the table"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 What if the issue of the United Kingdom\u2019s membership of the European Union were to be revisited? The British Prime Minister, Andy Burnham<\/strong>, said<\/a> yesterday (30 September) that it is \u201cpossible\u201d that a future Labour Party election manifesto might promise a new referendum on the European Union. In an interview with the state broadcaster the BBC, Burnham made it clear that a referendum \u201cwould not be the right thing to do at this moment,\u201d but that when it comes to the UK\u2019s relationship with the European Union, the country must \u201cconsider the options<\/strong>\u201d because \u201cwhere we are now is not positive enough,\u201d he reiterated. <\/p>\n

In his speech<\/a> on Tuesday (29 September) in Liverpool, at the Labour Party conference, the Prime Minister announced that \u201c\u201cThis year the United Kingdom will hold a summit with the EU to conclude major agreements aimed at boosting the economy, reducing bureaucracy, supporting business growth and offering young people opportunities that were denied to them after Brexit.<\/strong>\u201d According to the Prime Minister, this \u201cshould represent the starting point, not the upper limit, of our ambition\u201d and for this reason, over the course of the year, \u201che will set out his vision in greater detail on the path to be taken by the UK and the EU, with a view to strengthening our prosperity and our security.\u201d<\/p>\n

The move could draw a huge divide ahead of the upcoming elections, with the Conservatives accusing Burnham of trying to \u201creopen old wounds by reigniting the battles of the Brexit years.\u201d When he stood as a candidate last May, Burnham had promised not to “return” to the subject<\/a><\/strong>. When the BBC\u2019s political editor, Chris Mason<\/strong>, pointed out the contradiction, the Prime Minister replied: \u201cNo, I\u2019m not actually proposing that, am I? I\u2019m saying that, as we look at a ten-year plan for Britain, the country needs to consider the options for where we\u2019ll be.\u201d On the contrary, \u201cwe are well before the stage of putting anything to the public; at the moment, it is simply a matter of examining the broad options for our relationship,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

\n

It has been more than ten years since 23 June 2016, when the United Kingdom held a referendum<\/a> \u2013 which has gone down in history as Brexit \u2013 on its membership of the European Union. Fifty-two per cent of voters voted in favour of leaving the EU, while 48 per cent voted to remain. On 29 March 2017, the United Kingdom notified the European Council of its intention to leave the European Union, formally invoking Article 50 of the Treaty of the European Union<\/a>. On 30 January 2020, the EU ratified the Withdrawal Agreement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Prime Minister stated that, over the course of the year, he will \u201cset out in greater detail his vision for the path forward for the UK and the EU, with a view to enhancing prosperity and security\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7908,"featured_media":466443,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"","format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[34970,31258,36025,27637],"class_list":["post-466452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-andy-burnham","tag-brexit-en-2","tag-gran-bretagna","tag-kingdom-united-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7908"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466452"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":466453,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466452\/revisions\/466453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}