Closer to Europe? Fine but please don’t align us down

Instead of rehashing old Brexit debates, the UK and EU should collaborate on mutual recognition and adopt the best elements of each other s private market frameworks to help start-ups raise capital more efficiently, says Kieron O’Brien “Come back to the EU anytime”, French minister Roland Lescure said last week, adding that if Britain wanted to rejoin the bloc, it would be pushing at an open door. It came as Andy Burnham held talks in Berlin with Friedrich Merz on greater European unity. Today our new PM will tell MPs it will be a “dereliction of duty” to turn down closer ties to the European Union if they can be negotiated. Ahead of the November EU-UK Summit, and a possible general election next year, debate will escalate. One assumes the Prime Minister knew what he was doing at his Labour conference when he refused to rule out going into the next election with a pledge to hold a second Brexit referendum. It was always going to reignite old debates. But we need to tread carefull