Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has urged the Labour party to commit to rejoining the European Union within a decade, advocating for a new approach that moves beyond the debates of 2016. Blair stated that Labour should abandon its current red lines and negotiate a new formal relationship with Brussels, suggesting that "everything is on the table," including free movement.
In a report from his think tank, Blair argued that the red lines established in 2016 are no longer relevant in 2026, given the changes the world has experienced. He emphasized that the focus should not be on "re-running the debates of 2016 but taking a new approach rooted in the reality of 2026." Blair also proposed that Britain could use potential rejoin negotiations as a leverage point to encourage reform within the EU.
Blair indicated that a simple return to membership of the single market and customs union would not be the desired outcome. Instead, he suggested Britain should only rejoin if the bloc undergoes reforms, emphasizing the need for "a Europe on a credible path to reform, a Europe of nation states, a Europe capable of being a genuine global power." He added that if such reforms are not pursued, Britain should continue to cooperate with the EU where mutually beneficial while maintaining its independence.
Labour's Shadow Cabinet Office minister, Mike Wood, responded to Blair's comments by stating that Labour should not attempt to "turn back the clock" but instead concentrate on presenting forward-looking proposals. This call marks a shift from Blair's earlier stance this year, when he suggested that the UK was too weakened to consider rejoining the EU and that reversing Brexit was not the solution to the country's problems.
The new report from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, titled "Beyond Leave and Remain: A Path to Rejoining a Reformed Europe," calls for Prime Minister Andy Burnham to make rejoining the EU a central part of the government's upcoming ten-year plan. The report also suggests that Britain should be prepared to place freedom of movement on the negotiating table. In the interim, the report advises that London and Brussels should collaborate on areas such as AI, cyber-resilience, defense, and energy, proposing initiatives like turning the North Sea into a shared energy hub and rebuilding Europe's nuclear power capacity.
Burnham himself has previously expressed a desire for the UK to rejoin the EU in his lifetime and recently declined to rule out including a commitment to rejoining in the next Labour manifesto. He indicated a desire to "go to the next level" in forging a new deal with the EU to further boost the British economy, noting that such issues are part of current discussions alongside EU requests regarding youth mobility.