Nigel Farage says Andy Burnham handed Reform ‘huge opportunity’ as PM weighs up Brexit betrayal

Nigel Farage has said Reform UK was handed a “huge opportunity” after Andy Burnham opened the door to closer ties with the European Union.

Speaking to GB News, the Reform leader accused the Prime Minister of “chopping and changing” over Brexit after he said he could not “leave Britain out” of discussions about a future relationship with the EU.

Mr Burnham told The People’s Channel yesterday that “all options” should be considered when deciding the UK’s long-term relationship with the bloc.

Mr Farage pointed to comments Mr Burnham made in May while campaigning in the Leave-voting Makerfield by-election, when he said he would not seek to return Britain to the EU.

“Our relentless focus now should be on domestic issues, and fixing our own underlying problems, rather than on re-running divisive arguments about rejoining the European Union,” Mr Burnham said at the time.

Labour’s 2024 manifesto explicitly said Britain would remain outside the EU and ruled out a return to the single market, customs union and freedom of movement.

“He made it absolutely clear that rejoining the European Union, the single market, the customs union wasn’t even on the table… fast forward a few months and apparently everything is on the table,” the Reform UK leader exclaimed.

“So he’s chopped and changed on this. He’s gone from a couple of years ago saying in his lifetime he wishes to rejoin, to saying to the voters in a by-election he doesn’t, to now showing his true colours.”

“Perhaps he thinks that by doing this he can dig into the green vote; he can dig into the metropolitan vote,” Mr Farage speculated.

The Reform leader argued that the Prime Minister’s overtures to Brussels gave Reform a huge boost against Labour in the party’s now-contested heartlands.

“I promise you, where I am right now in Doncaster or huge parts of the Red Wall, he has genuinely given Reform a huge opportunity.”

“Here in the north, in the Midlands, it's got to be a straight two-horse contest. It'll be Reform versus Labour.

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“Even attempting to go back down that road (on Brexit) hands us, I believe, a huge advantage.”

Asked whether he was prepared to fight another Brexit referendum, Mr Farage replied: “I won’t need to fight another Brexit referendum because he’s gone down this route.

“He will lose the next election, and I really believe that,” he declared.

To that end, Mr Farage said he was now putting Reform on “General Election footing”.

“We'll be out there campaigning every single week until it comes,” the Clacton MP said, predicting the next vote could be very soon.

“I personally believe it'll come in May of next year. I may be right, I may be wrong.

Mr Farage described a new election as a chance to overturn the “biggest upset in British politics”.

“The two traditional parties tell voters at election time what they want to hear, without ever delivering on those promises.”