The business and trade secretary<\/a> has slapped down suggestions that Labour<\/a> should campaign to rejoin the European Union<\/a>, arguing that Britain should not be \u201cplunging ourselves into a very long, protracted debate\u201d about undoing Brexit<\/a>. <\/p>\n Peter Kyle appeared to bat away calls from senior Labour<\/a> figures that the party should campaign to again seek membership of the trade bloc.<\/p>\n It comes after London mayor<\/a> Sadiq Khan<\/a> earlier this month argued his party should commit to rejoining the bloc in its next election manifesto, claiming that a return to the EU is \u201cinevitable\u201d. <\/p>\n Asked about the mayor\u2019s remarks, Welsh first minister Eluned Morgan said she was an \u201cabsolute Euro-enthusiast\u201d. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, health secretary Wes Streeting<\/a> in December suggested he favours the idea of a customs union with the bloc. <\/p>\n But asked about the growing calls within Labour for the party to reopen the conversation on the EU, Mr Kyle told LBC Labour would not move to rejoin.<\/p>\n \u201cI think right now we have the policy that is right for the moment we\u2019re in: make sure we have the reset, that we explore all the opportunities we have with the EU, with the US, and also looking at the additional trade deals we\u2019ve got around the world,\u201d the business secretary said.<\/p>\n \u201cRather than plunging ourselves into a very long, protracted debate about rejoining we need to be looking at all of the incredible opportunities there are out there for partnerships around the world, both multilaterally and bilaterally, country-to-country.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Kyle said he wanted to \u201cfocus on those deals that will deliver short-term, immediate growth into our economy\u201d, like the US tech deal, which he said unlocked 300 billion US dollars worth of trade.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cThis is what I\u2019m really, really focused on. And when it comes to the EU, we will rebuild, we are rebuilding the relationship, and we\u2019re very open-minded about the alignment that will bring benefits to both EU countries and the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n Though Mr Kyle is the latest senior government figure to slap down suggestions of rejoining the EU, ministers are seeking to work more closely with the bloc.<\/p>\n Sir Keir Starmer <\/a>is preparing a bill which would hand ministers powers to bring the UK into alignment with EU law, in an attempt to reduce paperwork and boost growth<\/a> in Britain.<\/p>\n The bill, which will be brought forward this year as part of No 10\u2019s plan for a Brexit \u201creset\u201d<\/a>, would give ministers overarching powers to bring the UK in line with EU law <\/a>in certain areas, such as food standards, animal welfare and pesticide use \u2013 a process known as dynamic alignment.<\/a><\/p>\n Meanwhile, chancellor Rachel Reeves has admitted that Brexit has not been good for Britain. <\/p>\n She warned that the UK risks being \u201cstranded\u201d between rival trading blocs unless it forged closer ties with Brussels, and said the UK\u2019s fate as a country was \u201cinescapably bound with that of Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n As the country battles flatlining economic growth<\/a> and ongoing fears over the cost of living, Ms Reeves argued that closer ties with the EU is the \u201cbiggest prize\u201d economically.<\/a><\/p>\n The UK and EU plan to meet in the summer to agree deals on shared food standards, carbon emissions, and youth mobility, as part of the government\u2019s attempted \u201creset\u201d with Brussels.<\/p>\n There have been some suggestions from those involved in negotiations that a carve-out on cheaper tuition fees for EU students could prove a sticking point in the youth mobility deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-847244","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-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116284604651411575","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847244","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=847244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Mayor](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0b9c902ce3dce8dabb807bd2584b4073Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzc0NDMwMjUw-2.83189871.jpg\")
Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan (PA)<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/7b76f6aa34e3301043d30fc1bc032746Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzc0NDMwMjc4-2.83915952.jpg\")
The Chancellor is seeking closer alignment in key areas (PA)<\/p>\n