appeared to back joining a customs union with the EU<\/a>, which No 10 has ruled out, last month, while Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham at Labour conference called for the UK to rejoin the bloc.<\/p>\nThe pair are seen as front-runners for any battle to replace Starmer, alongside the likes of Angela Rayner and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.<\/p>\n
No 10 responded to Streeting by reiterating its opposition to a customs union.<\/p>\n
Speaking to The i Paper before the Health Secretary\u2019s intervention, EU relations minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said a customs union was \u201cruled out\u201d, adding: \u201cThis is the framework I am negotiating in \u2013 no customs union, no single market, no freedom of movement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Candidates staking out softer Brexit policies<\/p>\n
But insiders said that candidates are staking out softer Brexit positions with one eye on a future leadership contest where pro-EU Labour members could decide the next prime minister, and as they work out a strategy to try and win the next election.<\/p>\n
The Labour insider said: \u201cThings are in flux and candidates are trying to work out how they can appeal to party members, as well as to voters [that] Labour is haemorrhaging leftwards. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is hard to tell whether this is purely about party factional moves or whether there is a real desire to stake out a new political strategy for the Government. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut there is a fairly clear consensus across the party that Brexit hasn\u2019t worked, that voters can see it hasn\u2019t worked, and that the Government\u2019s \u2018reset\u2019 isn\u2019t going to give us nearly enough growth or credit with voters.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Starmer\u2019s position does not appear in immediate danger, many in Labour believe big defeats in May\u2019s local elections could provide the spark for a leadership contest.<\/p>\n
The Labour rules make a challenge difficult to carry out in practice, as any candidate would need the support of 81 MPs and to be confident of then winning a vote of members and affiliates such as trade unions against Starmer. The PM in his New Year message vowed to \u201cstay the course\u201d in a fresh signal he would fight any coup attempt.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, candidates are believed to be moving behind the scenes as Labour loses voters to the Greens and Liberal Democrats.<\/p>\n
Around 70 per cent of Labour, Lib Dem and Green voters believe a future leader should open talks on rejoining the EU, according to a YouGov poll for The Times last month, while 80 per cent of those who backed Starmer\u2019s party at the last election want a new prime minister to open talks on joining a customs union with the EU.<\/p>\n
The Labour insider added that candidates across the board were considering softer Brexit policies, with those on the right of the party casting around for moves that would gain the support of members, who are typically more left wing.<\/p>\n
The insider said: \u201cI actually think the non-Blue Labour bit of the right of the party have more to gain from having a clean Brexit offer because that\u2019s the bit of the party that doesn\u2019t typically have crowd pleasers for members.\u201d <\/p>\n
Anand Menon, director of UK in a Changing Europe, an academic think-tank, says Labour leadership candidates are realising they need to bring back urban, young, educated, liberal graduates rather than chasing so-called \u201chero voters\u201d \u2013 often Brexit supporters in \u201cRed Wall\u201d working-class seats \u2013 and are therefore considering a pitch on tacking closer to the EU, which would gain the support of the former.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are talking about it, Europe is one of the issues,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople aren\u2019t stupid \u2013 if you want the kind of diehard supporters to vote for you, Europe is the place to look \u2013 that is the policy area where there are a lot of diehard supporters.\u201d <\/p>\n
He went on: \u201cI think some people in the party are beginning to realise that if you move closer to the EU that [young, educated] is exactly the sort of voter you will attract.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a possibility under a new leader that you could do this slightly differently and slightly better.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it comes to the EU, \u2018nothing will come for free\u2019<\/p>\n
But Menon warned that a future leader would not have time before the next election to negotiate and implement softer Brexit deals for voters to feel it, meaning they \u201cwill have all the political pain and none of the economic gain before the next election\u201d.<\/p>\n
\t\tYour next read<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t![\"Article](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/SEI_278182214.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nEx-UK trade official David Henig said \u201cpotential leadership candidates\u201d are \u201ctalking of going further\u201d than the Government on EU relations, suggesting Starmer\u2019s recent rhetoric on getting closer to Brussels may have been \u201cinternal party management\u201d.<\/p>\n
Henig, UK director at the European Centre for International Political Economy, also cautioned those pushing for closer ties that the EU is likely to push for its own demands in return.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe warning to those wanting to go further is that nothing will come for free \u2013 they\u2019ll have to be bolder in public to win over Brussels,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The i Paper understands potential future Labour leadership candidates have been sounding out experts on UK-EU policy Britain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,6852,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,807,203946,528,3592,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-669444","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-customs-union","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-europe","13":"tag-european","14":"tag-european-union","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-keir-starmer","17":"tag-labour-leadership","18":"tag-labour-party","19":"tag-politics-exclusive","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115826775081321138","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}