“More harm than good.” That was Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s verdict on Brexit, delivered on Tuesday from the stage of the annual Labour Party Conference in Liverpool.
Britain, he argued, cannot have “the clear path we need into the rest of this century” until it settles what its future relationship with the European Union should be. The EU, he reminded delegates, is “still our largest market.” The UK left in 2020, four years after a referendum in which about 52% of voters chose to go.
Burnham did not announce a policy. He promised a process. He said he would use the occasion to set out the choices open to Britain, and added: “And there are different options, and I will see if we can find consensus around one, which will give us clarity about our position and the future of the continent that we live in.”
A promise on the voting system
Then he turned to home affairs. Labour’s next manifesto, he said, will carry a commitment to change the UK’s electoral system, and he is setting up a “new national commission on electoral reform”. Every political party is invited to take part.
He spoke directly to the members in the hall. “In past years, you have voted twice to support electoral reform. I hear you, I agree with you,” he said.
The pledge itself was short. “We will contest the next election with a manifesto commitment to change the electoral system so that everyone’s vote counts and everyone’s voice is heard,” Burnham said.
