Andy Burnham, the UK prime minister, has said Britain has «lost more than we gained» through Brexit, a remark that forms part of a broader series of criticisms he has levelled at the decision to leave the European Union. Burnham has set out a clear preference for closer ties with the bloc, and he has directed his sharpest comments at the Conservatives, whom he accuses of burning all bridges with the EU after Brexit.
Burnham said a new deal with the EU is due next week. He argues that the agreement will lower food prices for households and boost the earnings of British exporters. The same «lost more than it gained» line was carried by the Manchester Evening News in its report of his remarks, underlining that the comment was delivered as a considered judgement rather than an offhand aside. The framing places the prime minister's position firmly against the approach taken by the previous Conservative government, which he blames for leaving the relationship with the bloc in a damaged state.
The scale of any effect on food prices or export earnings has not been quantified in the material available, and it is not yet confirmed that the EU deal will be concluded next week. Those two points remain open. The government's claims about the agreement have yet to be tested against the final text, and until the terms are published, the size and direction of any economic gains cannot be independently assessed.
The prime minister's stance on Europe has drawn comment beyond the immediate announcement. In an Independent column, John Rentoul examined Burnham's approach to welfare and Europe and argued that he tends to defer difficult decisions. The column places the Brexit remarks within a wider assessment of how the prime minister handles hard choices. That line of analysis will be applied to the government as it moves from rhetoric to a signed agreement, and the test will be whether the EU deal delivers the price and export benefits Burnham has described.
The Brexit comments also arrive alongside a separate review that calls for a legal guarantee of a job or training place for young people. The review warns that a generation growing up on benefits would be a disaster. Taken together, the employment proposals and the renewed focus on the EU relationship show the government seeking to present its domestic and European agendas as linked. The material does not set out how those two strands would be connected in practice, nor how either would be funded or implemented.
The combination of a sharp verdict on Brexit, a promised deal with Brussels and a push on youth employment signals that the new government intends to tie its European policy to its domestic priorities. Whether the promised gains in food prices and export earnings materialise, and whether the employment guarantee follows, will determine how far the prime minister's critique of the past decade is borne out in practice.