Ten years after Brexit, Britain knocks on the EU's door again

"We could stay as we are, or we could go all the way."

A decade after leaving the European Union, Britain is once again entertaining the idea of rejoining the bloc. Prime Minister Andy Burnham has become the first sitting British leader since Brexit to put full EU membership back on the table as a possibility worth examining.

It falls short of a declaration that Britain will rejoin. But the significance is hard to dismiss: what had been treated as a political taboo since the 2016 referendum has now been raised openly by the prime minister himself. Analysts say a decade of shifting public opinion and a transformed political landscape have handed Burnham a card that would have been unplayable for any of his predecessors.

Bloomberg and The Guardian reported Wednesday that ahead of an upcoming UK-EU summit, Burnham outlined four long-term scenarios for resetting the relationship: maintaining the status quo, joining the EU customs union, joining the EU single market, or returning to full EU membership.

Burnham said Brexit had done Britain "more harm than good" and called for a careful look at "what is feasible and what the pros and cons of each option are." On the prospect of full rejoining, he used the phrase "go all the way," leaving the door open.

Burnham has not always championed the rejoin cause. As mayor of Manchester he floated the possibility of EU membership, but when he stood in the Makerfield by-election earlier this year — a constituency with strong pro-Brexit sentiment — he shrugged off the idea. His position on EU rejoining has shifted with the political winds.

His latest remarks also mark a sharp departure from the line his Labour Party ran on just two years ago. In the 2024 general election, Labour ruled out not only rejoining the EU but also returning to the single market or customs union, or restoring freedom of movement.

The revival of the EU debate in British politics reflects a change in public sentiment.

A YouGov poll conducted Sept. 24-25 and published Wednesday found that 73 percent of Britons supported building a closer relationship with the EU even without formally rejoining the bloc or its single market and customs union. Only 15 percent were opposed.

Particularly striking, 64 percent of voters who backed Leave in the 2016 referendum also supported closer ties. Opinion on reversing Brexit itself remains divided, but the old political calculus — that keeping distance from the EU was a safe default — has largely broken down.

For Burnham, the shift in public mood is opening up new political space.

Bloomberg analyzed his EU remarks as an extension of his broader strategy to consolidate a left-of-center coalition. With the British right fragmented, Burnham is seeking to draw in centrist and left-leaning voters scattered across the Liberal Democrats and the Greens, as well as Labour's own base.

His push to reset EU relations sits alongside a string of other proposals — electoral reform and the introduction of a national social welfare service — that are likely to resonate with Liberal Democrat and Green supporters. The moves appear to follow a common political logic.

The contrast with a decade ago could hardly be sharper.

In 2016, Brexit united the Conservative right while splitting Labour down the middle. The party was forced to balance between pro-EU urban and younger voters on one side and its traditional working-class base, which had largely backed Leave, on the other. Advocating for EU membership risked losing working-class support; accepting Brexit risked alienating pro-EU voters.

Burnham is now trying to turn EU realignment from a Labour liability into a common platform capable of uniting Liberal Democrat and Green voters alongside his own base. Bloomberg said his remarks have opened the door to Labour running on an EU rejoin pledge at the next general election.

The response from Europe came faster than many expected.

French President Emmanuel Macron replied to Burnham's remarks in English: "Welcome back." He added that if Britain wanted to return and the prime minister was moving in that direction, it would be "very good news for both Britain and Europe."

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez also weighed in, calling Brexit a "massive loss" for both Britain and Europe and saying Spain would welcome Britain back "with open arms."

The road to full EU membership, however, is far from straightforward. Macron made clear that Britain could not simply cherry-pick the benefits of EU membership. Rejoining the single market would mean accepting the bloc's core principles — free movement of goods, services, capital and people. Full membership would also require the consent of all existing member states.

There is also no guarantee that the special arrangements Britain once enjoyed would be restored. As an EU member, Britain had opted out of the euro and the Schengen Agreement — the treaty governing open borders among member states — and received a special budget rebate. Any return would require renegotiating those terms from scratch.

Burnham himself has said he will not reverse Brexit during the current parliamentary term. His plan is to honor Labour's existing campaign pledges for this term while laying out the long-term options for the UK-EU relationship and putting them to voters at the next general election.

Ten years on from Brexit, the option with the broadest support in Britain is not EU membership itself but simply drawing closer to the EU again. A decade ago, the defining question in British politics was how far to pull away from Europe. Now, how far to move back is emerging as the new political choice.