BURNHAM URGES MPS TO BACK CLOSER EU TIES

Andy Burnham will tell MPs that failing to pursue a new relationship with the European Union would be a "dereliction of duty", as Parliament returns on Monday. According to a Downing Street source, the prime minister will repeat the view he set out at Labour's conference last month, when he said Brexit had done "more harm than good". He will say closer ties with Brussels could help control immigration and boost growth, and will urge all parties to back the government's approach to the EU.

The Downing Street source said Burnham understood why some politicians were reluctant to accept that Brexit had not delivered what they had promised, but that sticking with the status quo would be a "major dereliction of duty". MPs are due to debate a petition calling for Britain to rejoin the EU on Monday. Burnham announced at the conference that he would examine options for moving Britain closer to the bloc, including a possible bid to rejoin the EU in Labour's manifesto. The move was welcomed by France's president, Emmanuel Macron, and Spain's prime minister, Pedro Sanchez.

Polling carried out by European Movement UK with Obsurvant found that nearly three-quarters of Labour voters wanted a pledge to seek EU membership included in the party's next manifesto. The same survey found a majority of voters for all but one of the main parties backed including such a commitment in their own manifesto. Burnham has blamed Brexit for a decade of "drift and division" in British politics, and has said leaving the issue "hanging" was "not good enough". He has pledged to weigh the "pros and cons" of all options for the UK's future relationship with Brussels.