Trade unions urge Andy Burnham to drop Brexit ‘red lines’

LONDON — Andy Burnham should drop Labour’s “arbitrary” Brexit red lines and build a close new relationship with the EU, Britain’s trade unions said Tuesday. At their annual congress in Brighton, delegates from the U.K.’s labour movement backed a motion urging the new British prime minister to strike the “deepest possible partnership” with Brussels. But the unions — the ruling Labour party’s most reliable financial backers — said the new settlement should be guided by “national interest, not by arbitrary red lines,” and insisted “no options should be off the table.” Labour’s 2024 election manifesto pledged “no return to the single market, the customs union, or freedom of movement” — the so-called “red lines” which have limited the government’s room for maneuver in negotiations with Brussels. While Burnham, like Keir Starmer before him, says he wants to get closer to the EU, he has so far been careful not to unpick these main tenets of the Brexit settlement put in place by Boris Johnson. Mike Clancy, the general secretary of the Prospect union, which brought the motion to the congress, said unions had “sent a clear message to the government.” Unions have “seen the damage of Brexit first-hand,” he said, adding: “Keir Starmer’s ‘red lines’ placed unnecessary constraints on EU talks, which made a good deal for Britain harder to obtain. “The new prime minister should chart his own course on Europe, reject the overtures from Team Trump to dump consumer, worker, and environmental protections, and explore all avenues to increase cooperation on trade, defence and other key issues including through closer integration with the single market.” Burnham said at the start of this month that he wanted to reach a new Brexit deal which would “add percentage points to our growth.” But EU officials and diplomats have said the red lines seriously limit the room for maneuver and may not be compatible with such an ambition. Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, which represents 47 affiliated unions covering about 5.3 million workers across the U.K., told POLITICO last week ahead of the vote: “All I want is when both parties sit down at that U.K.-EU summit, we’re thinking about what is the best possible deal for U.K. jobs, for U.K. workers, and for not just closer economic ties, but also that Britain plays an important role in Europe politically.” He added: “Various MPs would like to join a single market, customs union, Swiss model etc in that next manifesto … I’m sure there are lots of MPs, not just in the Labour Party, who would like to go beyond that as well.” Burnham’s government has said it will complete talks on three files opened by Starmer’s government: for a new agri-food agreement, youth mobility scheme, and emissions trading deal. The agreements are set to be finalized at a summit later this year — though no date has yet been set for the meeting. A Downing Street spokesperson said in August that the government remained “committed to the red lines set out in the manifesto,” adding: “We’re not rejoining the European Union, and there will be no return to the customs union, the single market, or freedom of movement.”