Andy Burnham edges closer to EU reset as Prime Minister declares new Brexit deal is ‘what voters wanted in 2016’

Mr Burnham will meet EU leaders in Brussels next week to sign agreements on food and farming, emissions trading and a youth mobility scheme, insisting the move will raise GDP by 0.4 per cent.

He said: “I believe there is a good deal to be done that could be a win-win for Britain and Europe. I think it actually could be more like the Brexit that people thought they were voting for in 2016.

“I don’t think people thought they were going to get a Brexit as hard as the one that finally came through at the end of 2019.”

No10 added there was more to negotiate, but the Prime Minister believes the end agreement could be “closer to what people voted for at the referendum”.

Asked if his move to reopen debate on the UK-EU relationship had helped or hindered negotiations, Mr Burnham said: “I think it has helped, but there’s a long way to go.”

He said he would “fight now, over the days to come, to make sure we get this deal over the line”.

At the event, he added: “I don’t think people thought they were going to get a Brexit as hard as the one that finally came through at the end of 2019.

“It was much harder than Theresa May’s deal when she was trying to come up with an arrangement.

“So let’s see where we get to in the next seven days. But I think in the end, what we get could be good for Britain, but also closer to what people voted for at the referendum.”

His remarks appear to swipe at Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal, the same week Mr Burnham tried to shut down the latest claims made by former Prime Minister Lord Cameron.

Earlier this week, the Tory peer said reopening the Brexit debate would trigger a “very long and painful” process – just a decade after the ex-Prime Minister called the referendum.

In the same breath, Lord Cameron said the economic issues blighting Britain were unrelated to leaving the EU.

He warned that flirting with the possibility of rejoining the bloc could hamper Britain’s chances of a better deal.

Lord Cameron said: “Our economic problems are we are overspending, over-borrowing, over-taxing, over-regulated, and far too much being spent on working age welfare.

“Those are a set of problems that have nothing to do with Brexit.”

Hitting back, Mr Burnham said: “I think he is wrong to say that the low growth that we’ve had over the last decade has, quote, ‘nothing to do with Brexit’.

“I would say the evidence says otherwise and indeed the Treasury analysis says otherwise.”

Mr Burnham is currently laying the ground for a crunch UK-EU summit in Brussels next Friday.