At the ruling Labour Party’s conference last month, Burnham called for closer links with the EU.
He has yet to spell out precise details of the relationship he would seek — but the party’s 2024 election-winning manifesto under Keir Starmer ruled out rejoining the single market, customs union or accepting freedom of movement with the bloc.
Burnham said Monday that the promises of the 2016 referendum that took Britain out of the EU have not been delivered.
“We got a harder Brexit than was proposed in the referendum campaign,” he said. “It’s weakened our economy. It’s also weakened our control of immigration and that might surprise people.”
But he said: “I’m not proposing rejoining in this Parliament. We’re way, way away from that at this particular moment in time. What I am saying is we need to take some practical steps to make the arrangement work better than the arrangement we’ve got right now.”
The PM’s remarks come after he told the Sunday Times that accepting freedom of movement with the bloc should not be off the table in future negotiations.
A U.K.-EU summit is scheduled for next month, although that is set to focus tightly on technical tweaks to the existing relationship rather than addressing bigger questions of Britain’s future ties to the bloc.