{"id":966065,"date":"2026-05-17T06:27:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T06:27:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/966065\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T06:27:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T06:27:35","slug":"burnham-expected-to-drop-call-to-reverse-brexit-as-poll-shows-voters-divided-on-pm-prospects-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/966065\/","title":{"rendered":"Burnham expected to drop call to reverse Brexit as poll shows voters divided on PM prospects"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Burnham<\/a> is expected to drop his call to reverse Brexit<\/a> as he faces a crunch by-election <\/a>that could see him return to Westminster and even potentially enter No 10.<\/p>\n

He will, however, still call for close ties between the UK and the European Union<\/a>, according to reports.<\/p>\n

The man who could be the UK\u2019s next prime minister<\/a> must first win the seat of Makerfield, which voted to leave the EU in 2016.<\/p>\n

If Mr Burnham wins that seat, he would face a challenge from former health secretary Wes Streeting, who has confirmed he will be standing, should a Labour leadership contest to replace Sir Keir Starmer<\/a> be triggered.<\/p>\n

But a new poll shows voters are split<\/a> on the so-called \u201cKing of the North\u201d and whether or not he looks like a PM in waiting.<\/p>\n

The pro-EU Mr Burnham told last year\u2019s Labour Party conference he wanted the UK to rejoin the bloc.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope it happens in my lifetime,\u201d he told delegates. \u201cI believe in the unions of all kinds. The Union of the UK. The European Union and the benefits it brought this country. Trade unions? People prosper more when they’re part of unions. That\u2019s my belief, and I’ll say it clearly.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, allies of the Greater Manchester mayor are reported to have been told he is not going to be \u201cgoing big on Europe\u201d in his pitch to voters and the country.<\/p>\n

\"Mayor<\/p>\n

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham running outside his house in Warrington, Cheshire, on Friday (PA)<\/p>\n

Another ally told the i Newspaper: \u201cOf course he will want to talk about a closer relationship with Europe, but he is not going to start talking about rejoining the EU.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reform is expected to pull out all the stops to win the by-election, a move that risks plunging the Labour Party into chaos.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Josh Simons, the Labour MP for Makerfield, announced that he was resigning his seat specifically to make way for Mr Burnham.<\/p>\n

He said it had been a \u201cdifficult decision\u201d, but that the mayor was someone who can \u201cdrive the change the country is crying out for\u201d if he wins.<\/p>\n

But he must win the seat first if he has any chance of a tilt at the Labour leadership.<\/p>\n

A new poll, by YouGov, has found 31 per cent believe the mayor does currently look like a prime minister in waiting \u2013 but close to the same number, 27 per cent, think he does not. And, more than two in five, 42 per cent, are unsure he\u2019s got what it takes.<\/p>\n

Things are better in his political backyard of the North, where the figures are 38 vs 27 per cent, however.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham is expected to drop his call to reverse Brexit as he faces a crunch by-election that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":966066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5226],"tags":[8916,802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,203946,269710,16,15,3595],"class_list":["post-966065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brexit","tag-andy-burnham","tag-brexit","tag-britain","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-great-britain","tag-labour-leadership","tag-makerfield","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wes-streeting"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116588501403985988","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966065","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=966065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/966066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=966065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=966065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=966065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}