The UK could rejoin the European Union without adopting the Euro but must accept freedom of movement, the bloc’s former chief Brexit negotiator has said.
Michel Barnier said it was “perfectly possible to begin such a negotiation [on membership] without any kind of obligation to take part in” the EU’s single currency.
But what remains “unnegotiable” is “the condition to join the single market”, he said. That would require accepting freedom of movement of people as well as of goods, services, and capital.
“As far as the freedom of movement is concerned, I can only repeat that the four freedoms are linked together and are not negotiable,” the former French prime minister, once dubbed the bloc’s “Mr Brexit”, told Sky News.
“There is no negotiation possible… on any kind of cherry-picking or the single market ‘a la carte’,” he added. “The UK knows quite perfectly the condition to be part of and to rejoin the single market and the customs union.”
Mr Barnier’s comments come after Andy Burnham denied he had proposed the return of freedom of movement between the UK and EU, insisting the public was “the boss” in deciding any future relationship.
But the prime minister said an “honest discussion” was needed about how Brexit had led to temporary migration from Europe being replaced by long-term settlement in larger numbers.
And he has not ruled out putting the option to rejoin the organisation in Labour’s manifesto at the next general election.
Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock has also said the PM would be the man to lead the UK back into the EU.
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Support for rejoining the EU is at its highest level since the Brexit vote, at 61 per cent according to leading pollster, professor Sir John Curtice.
Nick Bloom, a professor at Stanford University, has also estimated that up to 8 per cent of GDP has been wiped off the UK economy through lost trade, increased red tape and delays in pushing the Brexit deal through.
Mr Burnham has told ministers to “explore options” for the long-term relationship that will eventually be put to the public.
The PM said at the weekend that he had noticed during the Makerfield by-election that led to his return to Parliament that public opinion had changed in the Leave-voting constituency over the decade since the 2016 Brexit vote.
“I think public opinion has changed nationally,” he said. “But I want to be really clear on this issue. I will not run ahead of public opinion. The public need to be the boss when it comes to whatever happens with Brexit.”
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