{"id":876281,"date":"2026-04-06T17:45:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T17:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/876281\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T17:45:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T17:45:19","slug":"labour-should-hold-a-referendum-on-whether-britain-should-rejoin-the-eu-brexit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/876281\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour should hold a referendum on whether Britain should rejoin the EU | Brexit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The prime minister\u2019s comments about seeking closer relations with the EU are to be welcomed as a step in the right direction (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/apr\/01\/uk-needs-ambitious-new-eu-ties-amid-iran-war-starmer-says\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Starmer calls for \u2018ambitious\u2019 new UK-EU ties as Trump threatens to quit Nato, 1 April<\/a>). Yet a piecemeal approach to repairing the damage done by Brexit is unlikely to succeed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">A genuinely \u201cambitious\u201d plan would be for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/labour\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Labour<\/a> to announce a referendum on whether the UK should open negotiations on re-entry to the EU, promising a general election to secure a mandate to implement the proposal should the British public vote in favour. It would allow the government to seize the initiative,\u00a0providing it with an issue\u00a0around which to rally a broad\u00a0base of electoral support.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">This would also expose the increasing reluctance of Reform\u00a0UK and the Conservatives to defend <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/eu-referendum\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Brexit<\/a> and silence accusations\u00a0of\u00a0the betrayal of British voters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">But above all, it would provide a\u00a0practical route for restoring Britain to its rightful place within the EU,\u00a0at a time when shifts in the global order make that task more\u00a0urgent than ever.<br \/><strong>Prof Philip Murphy<\/strong> <br \/>Director, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.historyandpolicy.org\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">History &amp; Policy<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><strong> Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2026\/apr\/06\/mailto:guardian.letters@theguardian.com?body=Please%20include%20your%20name,%20full%20postal%20address%20and%20phone%20number%20with%20your%20letter%20below.%20Letters%20are%20usually%20published%20with%20the%20author%27s%20name%20and%20city\/town\/village.%20The%20rest%20of%20the%20information%20is%20for%20verification%20only%20and%20to%20contact%20you%20where%20necessary.\" data-link-name=\"in body link \" https:=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>email<\/strong><\/a><strong> us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tone\/letters\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>letters<\/strong><\/a><strong> section.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The prime minister\u2019s comments about seeking closer relations with the EU are to be welcomed as a step&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":876282,"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-876281","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\/116359013163818330","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876281","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=876281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}