UK Prime Minister Burnham: Britain Has 'Lost More Than We Gained' From Brexit, Heads to Brussels Next Week for Three Deals
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham told the Welsh Labour conference in Llandudno on November 14 that the United Kingdom has 'lost more than we gained' in the ten years since leaving the European Union, accusing the Conservatives of having 'burned all our bridges' with the EU after the 2016 referendum and of delivering a harder Brexit than voters thought they were getting. He said he would lead on the issue as prime minister and try to get the best possible agreement for Wales and for the whole country.
Burnham is due in Brussels on November 20 for a UK-EU summit with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa. Agreements that could be signed cover food and farming, emissions trading and a youth mobility scheme. Burnham has said the package could raise UK GDP by 0.4%, about 17 billion pounds, and that a food and farming deal would bring food prices down and put more money in the pockets of Welsh farmers and exporters of shellfish and lamb. He said the government must be willing to take difficult decisions to get the cost of living down.
Senior figures in Brussels have said the UK must start paying for access to the European programmes it wants to join. The UK is reported to be prepared to spend up to 450 million pounds a year on discounted tuition fees for EU students in return for access to the Made in Europe industrial programme. Burnham has recently said he is open, in the longer term, to rejoining the single market, the customs union or even the EU itself, while stressing that voters will ultimately be 'the boss' of any such change.
Related: UK Prime Minister Burnham Says Russia Interfered in the 2016 Brexit Referendum
(Source: The Guardian)
Source: The Guardian
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：英国首相伯纳姆资料图。照片：英国政府，OGL 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: File photo of UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham. Photo by the UK Government, OGL 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
