Closer food and farming relations with the EU could help bring down the cost of living, Andy Burnham claimed, adding that a coming summit with the bloc “doesn’t need to be the end of our ambition”.
The prime minister is due to sign a series of deals with the EU on 20 November in Brussels.
The agreements will be focused on bringing down post-Brexit trade barriers on food and farming as well as working closely on emissions trading, making it easier for young people from the UK to work, live and study in Europe and vice versa.
The prime minister suggested that he wanted to go further in deepening relations with Europe in the aftermath of the summit.
Speaking to the Sunday Mirror ahead of the Brussels gathering, Mr Burnham made a case for forging closer ties with the UK’s continental neighbours based on bringing down household costs.
“It pays to have a good relationship with your neighbours, and the practical deals we are agreeing with Europe will pay off for families across the UK,” he told the newspaper. “Cutting red tape on food coming in and out of the country will ease pressure on prices at the supermarket, while making life easier for farmers and food producers. This summit will show what we can achieve when we work together, but it doesn’t need to be the end of our ambition.”
“Working more closely with Europe could drive growth, make our country safer and give us more tools to tackle illegal migration,” he added. “That’s a conversation worth having.”
Government sources suggested to the Sunday Mirror that restoring access to the EU’s migration database would help tackle illegal channel crossings and other migration crime in future.
The prime minister, who has previously expressed a wish to see the UK rejoin the EU in his lifetime, has been careful to say that he would leave such a decision in the hands of the public. He has claimed a range of options will be put before voters, but has ruled out any major changes before an election.
However, the prime minister faces some difficulties in forging significantly closer ties with the EU.
Michel Barnier, former chief Brexit negotiator for Brussels, warned that Britain would not be able to pick and choose elements of the EU’s single market arrangements if it decided to move closer to the bloc. EU member states would insist the UK adopt measures such as the free movement of people in exchange for easier trade, he told the BBC.
In a further sign that the path back into Europe would present challenges, Leo Varadkar, the former Irish premier who helped negotiate Brexit, warned that Britain would be unlikely to get a £5 billion annual rebate from the EU again if it rejoined.
Mr Varadkar, who helped secure the 2019 Brexit agreement with Boris Johnson, suggested that the discount Margaret Thatcher had negotiated on paying into the EU’s central budget would not be on offer to the UK in future.
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