Burnham Says He Would Like UK to Rejoin EU in His Lifetime, But British Public Are the Bosses

London: UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he would like to see the United Kingdom rejoin the European Union (EU) in his lifetime. But he insisted the British public are the bosses, and he will not move ahead of them.

Burnham spoke at the start of budget week in an interview on ITV's Good Morning Britain with Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley. Some of his most intriguing comments in the interview were about Brexit.

Madeley asked him if he saw himself as someone 'destined' to be the prime minister who would take Britain back into the EU. Burnham replied that he sees it as his job to be pragmatic about the whole situation — whether he can make it work better and add growth to the British economy.

When Reid asked him bluntly to be honest and say if he wanted the UK to rejoin, Burnham replied that he would be honest: in his lifetime he would like to see that happen, but he is not going to move ahead of the public and is not going to dictate in terms of his own opinions, because the British public are the bosses.

The previous day, in a Sunday Times interview, Burnham had said he would be willing to consider going into the next election proposing accepting EU free movement rules. Opposition parties, and privately even some Labour MPs, criticised the prime minister, treating it as a novel outrage, even though at Labour conference Burnham announced rejoining the EU could end up as the best option to emerge from his proposed renegotiation of the Brexit settlement, which would automatically involve accepting free movement.

Neil Kinnock said recently he thought Burnham was determined to take Britain back into the EU. In the morning interview Burnham insisted he was not dogmatic in that way.

He also denied breaking a promise made during the Makerfield by-election campaign not to reopen the Brexit referendum campaign, saying that was not what he was doing. He repeated the argument from his Labour conference speech that it was worth revising the relationship with the EU because the current post-Brexit settlement was not working.

Burnham claimed that, rather than being divisive, this new debate could bring people together. Later in the interview he returned to Brexit unprompted, saying that by talking about it in a more practical and honest way, it can start to bring people together who voted in different ways.

He said the divides lived through in the last decade really need to end, and people need to be pulled together. He said he is trying to give the country a direction, and there is no way to do that without coming back to the relationship with Europe and setting out options for how to get it right.

Burnham categorically ruled out trying to rejoin the EU before the election. On the timing of the election, he also insisted it would be 'no time soon', said his mind is not on an early election, and that people may as well put that out of their minds.