Burnham says a "win-win" deal with the EU could be done

Andy Burnham has said he believes a "win-win" deal could be done with the European Union for Britain and Europe. He made the remark while meeting fellow leaders at the European Political Community summit in Dublin, a gathering of leaders from across Europe, including countries that are not EU members.

Burnham said such a deal could be "more like the Brexit that people thought they were voting for in 2016". The Guardian reported that he said the UK ended up with a far harder Brexit, the country's departure from the EU, than people expected when they voted. He said the reset would be about whether the UK can take a step back towards closer working relationships with Europe.

Burnham held a bilateral meeting, a one-to-one talk, with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen at the Dublin summit. An EU-UK summit is expected next week, and Burnham hopes it will bring Britain closer to Europe. The two sides hope to sign agreements on food and drink, on emissions trading (a system that puts a price on carbon pollution), and on a youth mobility scheme aimed at young people moving between the two.

Not everything is settled. The question of tuition fees for European students remains a stumbling block. The EU has said the food and drink agreement and the emissions-trading deal may not enter into force without a tuition fee arrangement under which European students would pay domestic rates, the fees charged to students from the country itself.

Burnham has previously said the food and drink deal will add 0.4% to British GDP, or gross domestic product, the total value of goods and services an economy produces. He is expected to make the EU reset the centrepiece of his speech at the lord mayor's banquet on Monday night.

Burnham said the deal is not done and that there will be "some long nights ahead in the next seven days".