Burnham sets November target for new EU deals on food, energy and migration
Andy Burnham told MPs he will press for new agreements with the EU at next month's summit.
The prime minister set out the plan in the Commons on 12 October. He said the November meeting would have deals on the table for food and drink, energy trading and coordination on immigration. BBC
Burnham said closer cooperation on youth mobility, food and drink and energy would help drive UK growth. Youth mobility means schemes that let young people live and work abroad for a limited time. He said the package could add the equivalent of £10bn a year to the UK economy by 2040.
Some context is needed on that £10bn figure. It is a projection for 2040, not a near-term budget forecast. The Treasury has not published a breakdown. The Office for Budget Responsibility, the independent forecaster, Commons select committees and the EU side are likely to test the assumptions in the coming weeks.
Burnham said the EU's Made In Europe plans, which favour goods made in Europe, posed a risk to UK manufacturing. He said he was in talks on an arrangement that would work for Britain. The summit is now fixed for 20 November, with the EU hosting Britain. Reuters Earlier briefings had pointed only to late November at the earliest, with Made in Europe expected to be added to the agenda.
On limits, Burnham said Labour's manifesto pledges would stand until the next election. That means no return to the single market, the EU's shared trading rules, the customs union, its common tariff system, or freedom of movement, the right to live and work across the EU. He said the immediate priority was a successful outcome at the November summit.
He pointed to Scottish salmon as an example of friction. He said it faces a 100% rate of document checks at the border, costing around £100m in lost exports. Fisheries and food exports are where the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, the post-Brexit trade deal, most visibly affects producers.
Kemi Badenoch said Burnham was unpicking the deal signed with the EU a decade after the referendum. She said he would not get a better deal because the EU negotiates hard and he had revealed his negotiating hand. "This is not how you conduct negotiations". The Independent She separately criticised the prime minister for focusing on Brexit in the Commons. BBC Ed Davey took the opposite view. The Liberal Democrat leader called on Burnham to drop Labour's red lines and open talks on joining the single market and customs union.
The broader context here is the tension between November deliverables and the longer question of alignment. In late September Burnham had said Britain should weigh post-Brexit EU options, including rejoining the bloc. Reuters His Commons statement keeps the manifesto line until the next election, which leaves that wider debate open but parked. Earlier briefings noted his view that Brexit has done more harm than good and that Britain must decide its long-term EU relationship, alongside reports of up to £6.5bn a year lost in EU trade without a post-Brexit product deal.
What to watch in the negotiation comes down to three practical tests. First, food and drink. Any sanitary and phytosanitary easement, a deal to reduce animal and plant health checks, must change what happens at the border rather than offer words alone. Second, energy. Any deal must set firm rules on interconnection and market coupling, the cables and shared market rules that move power between countries. Third, immigration and youth mobility. The legal detail will matter, given the red line on freedom of movement. Made In Europe may prove the hardest part, since any exception for Britain must be one Brussels can sell to member states.
The political test here is straightforward. Both sides have a date. They have a list of headings. The prime minister has tied himself to a successful November outcome while ruling out the single market, customs union and freedom of movement before an election. That narrows his room for manoeuvre. It also gives critics a clear yardstick.
