A candidate openly sympathetic to EU rejoin must persuade Leave voters to elect him
A decade after Britain's rupture with Europe, two senior Labour figures are once again speaking the word 'rejoin' aloud — not in protest, but as political aspiration. As Wes Streeting and Andy Burnham contest their party's leadership, they are testing whether enough time has passed for Brexit to be discussed as an open question rather than a closed wound. The leadership race may reveal less about Europe itself than about whether Labour has genuinely healed, or merely learned to keep quiet.
- Streeting's public declaration that he wants the UK to 'one day' rejoin the EU has cracked open a question Labour spent years trying to bury.
- Burnham faces an immediate and uncomfortable contradiction: a candidate with pro-rejoin sympathies must first win a by-election in Makerfield, a constituency that voted decisively to Leave.
- The rest of the field is caught in a bind — embrace the rejoin language and risk relitigating a lost battle, or stay silent and appear evasive about questions their own colleagues are raising.
- Polling sends mixed signals: younger and urban voters show growing openness to EU membership, while many others simply want the issue set aside in favour of the NHS, the economy, and living standards.
- The leadership contest is quietly becoming a test of whether Labour's Brexit divisions are truly resolved — or merely waiting for the right moment to resurface.
Two senior Labour figures are openly discussing Britain's potential return to the European Union as they compete for the party's leadership — a move that risks reviving one of the deepest fractures in recent British political life.
Wes Streeting, announcing his candidacy, has said he would eventually like to see the UK rejoin the EU. It is a notable shift in tone: Brexit treated not as a settled matter to be quietly managed, but as an aspiration worth naming during a campaign for the party's highest office. Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, has expressed similar views — but his position carries an immediate complication. Before he can lead Labour, he must win a by-election in Makerfield, a constituency that voted decisively to Leave. The tension is concrete: a pro-rejoin candidate must persuade Leave voters to send him to Parliament.
The question this raises for Labour is an uncomfortable one. The party tore itself apart over Brexit in the previous decade, split between those who wanted to reverse the referendum and those who believed the 2016 decision had to be respected. That wound never fully healed. Now, as the party seeks new leadership, it must reckon with whether it is about to relitigate that battle — or whether enough time has passed to discuss Europe differently.
The broader uncertainty is whether the British public itself has moved on. Some polling suggests growing openness to rejoin, particularly among younger and urban voters. Other data indicates that many people, regardless of how they voted in 2016, simply want the matter settled and attention turned to the NHS, the economy, and living standards. How the remaining candidates respond — whether they echo the rejoin language or sidestep it — may ultimately reveal whether Labour's divisions are resolved, or merely dormant.
Two senior Labour figures are openly discussing Britain's return to the European Union as they prepare to contest the party's leadership election, a move that threatens to resurrect one of the deepest fractures in recent British politics.
Wes Streeting, announcing his candidacy for the top job, has stated that he would eventually like to see the UK rejoin the EU. The declaration marks a notable shift in how Labour's potential next leader is willing to discuss Brexit—not as a settled matter to be quietly managed, but as an aspiration worth naming aloud during a campaign for the party's highest office.
Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester who is also running to lead Labour, has made similar statements in the past. But Burnham's position carries a particular complication. To become leader, he first needs to win a by-election in Makerfield, a constituency in his region that voted decisively to leave the EU. The tension is immediate and concrete: a candidate openly sympathetic to EU rejoin must persuade voters in a Leave-voting area to send him to Parliament.
The emergence of this issue raises uncomfortable questions for Labour as it enters what could be a bruising internal contest. The party tore itself apart over Brexit during the previous decade, with members, MPs, and voters split between those who wanted to reverse the referendum result and those who believed the party needed to respect the 2016 decision and move forward. That wound never fully healed. Now, as the party seeks new leadership, the question surfaces again: will Labour relitigate Brexit, or has enough time passed that the party and the country can discuss it differently?
For Burnham specifically, the timing creates a genuine political puzzle. His personal views on EU membership appear genuine, but they sit uneasily with the immediate task in front of him. Makerfield is not a marginal seat where every vote is contested—it is a Labour stronghold. But it is also a place where the Leave vote was substantial, and where many voters made a clear choice about Britain's relationship with Europe. A candidate who has just spent months arguing for eventual rejoin must then ask those same voters to elect him to Parliament.
The broader question hanging over the leadership race is whether the British public has moved on from Brexit as a live political issue, or whether it remains a fault line capable of splitting parties and constituencies. Polling and local election results have offered mixed signals. Some surveys suggest growing openness to rejoin, particularly among younger voters and in urban areas. Other data indicates that many voters, regardless of how they voted in 2016, simply want the issue settled and the country focused on other problems—the NHS, the economy, living standards.
What happens next will depend partly on how the other leadership candidates respond. If they embrace similar language about eventual rejoin, the party risks appearing to relitigate a battle it lost. If they avoid the subject entirely, they risk seeming evasive about a question their own candidates are raising. Either way, Labour's leadership election is about to become a referendum on whether the party has truly moved past its Brexit divisions, or whether those divisions are simply dormant, waiting for the right moment to resurface.
Notable Quotes
Streeting said he would 'one day' like the UK to rejoin the EU— Wes Streeting, Labour leadership candidate
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why would Streeting raise this now, during a leadership campaign? Doesn't he risk looking backward?
He's not hiding his views—he's being explicit about them. That's actually a shift. For years, Labour treated Brexit like a live wire. Now some candidates seem to think the ground has moved enough that you can say it aloud.
But Burnham has to win Makerfield first. That's a Leave seat. How does he square that circle?
That's the real tension. He's not being dishonest—he genuinely holds these views. But he's asking voters in a Leave area to elect him while knowing he wants to rejoin. It's a test of whether that issue still dominates how people vote.
Do we know what the public actually thinks about rejoin now?
The picture is muddled. Some polling shows growing support, especially among younger people. But plenty of voters just want the issue closed and the country moving on to other things. That's the real risk for Labour—not that rejoin is unpopular, but that relitigating it looks like the party hasn't learned anything.
Could this split the party again?
It could, if the leadership race becomes a proxy battle over Brexit. But it might not, if candidates treat it as one view among many rather than a defining test. The difference is whether this becomes the story of the leadership race or just one thread in it.
What does Burnham's by-election tell us?
Everything. If he wins comfortably despite his pro-rejoin stance, it suggests the issue has genuinely lost its power to determine how people vote. If he struggles, it means Brexit is still live in ways Labour hasn't fully reckoned with.