Streeting: “Britain’s Future Lies With Europe”; Will Stand in Any Contest
Wes Streeting, who resigned as Health Secretary on Thursday, used a Saturday speech to the Progress conference to call for Britain to seek a new “special relationship” with the European Union and, eventually, to rejoin: “In 2026, the British people increasingly see that in a dangerous world we must club together, both to rebuild our economy and trade, and improve our defence against the shared threats from Russian aggression and America First. The biggest economic opportunity we have is on our doorstep… Britain’s future lies with Europe — and one day back in the European Union.” Streeting confirmed he will stand in any Labour leadership contest if one is triggered.
Streeting’s framing — positioning EU re-entry as a defence-and-economics response to Trump’s “America First” and to Russian aggression — deliberately reaches over the Brexit-cultural argument and into the harder-headed Treasury and MoD case. The Guardian quotes Burnham’s position via Telegraph reporting: he stands by his September 2025 Labour conference line that “long term… I want to rejoin” the EU, but would require a fresh mandate from voters to act on it. Asked by ITV News on Saturday whether he was in favour of rejoining the EU, Burnham said: “in the long term there is a case for that”, but added that he is “not advocating that in this by-election”. A formal contest would still require 81 MP nominations to trigger.