The Prime Minister is pushing for closer ties with the European Union
Andy Burnham is pushing for closer EU ties (Image: Getty)
Andy Burnham has been warned against a “delusional” bid to rejoin the EU after fresh calls by a Left-wing think tank. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said Britain should make Brussels membership its “medium-term” goal.
It comes as the Prime Minister is due to set out options for the UK’s future relationship with the bloc next month. But Brexiteers insisted that returning to the bloc will not solve the country’s economic problems.
Tory frontbencher Mike Wood said: “Calls to drag Britain back into the EU show that these Labour-friendly think tanks still haven’t learned the lessons of Brexit. Reopening old arguments about our relationship with Europe will do nothing to tackle the challenges facing families and businesses across the country today.
“Britain needs a government focused on getting our economy growing, bringing bills down and creating jobs, not revisiting settled questions. Labour must also be clear with the country that closer alignment comes with a cost.”
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Brexiteer Dame Priti Patel hit out at calls to rejoin the EU (Image: Getty)
Senior Conservative MP Dame Priti Patel said it was “delusional to think that rejoining the EU will solve the economic challenges Britain faces today”. She went on: “Labour’s agenda of more state control, along with membership of the EU, will only lead to more indecision, buck-passing, higher government spending and more taxes as we subsidise the EU and all the projects we’d be signing up to.
“The Left need to be honest with the public about the enormous trade-offs for UK taxpayers rejoining the EU will lead to. From more mobility and free movement schemes, to concessions on fishing, farming and removing Britain’s ability to undertake free trade outside the EU and the inevitable price for joining EU schemes, this will be wrong for our country and will only cause further uncertainty and division.”
Reform’s Andrew Rosindell added: “This is the usual Brussels-obsessed nonsense from a Labour-aligned think tank that still hasn’t accepted the result of the biggest democratic vote in British history. Reform UK will never support rejoining the EU. Instead, will continue to fight for a fully independent Britain that puts its own interests first, not the fantasies of a metropolitan elite.”
In its report, the IPPR said that changes in global politics over the past decade mean the UK should make becoming an EU member state its “medium-term” goal. The think tank’s executive director Harry Quilter-Pinner said: “The world Britain built its post-Brexit strategy for no longer exists.
“We are entering an age in which economic strength, security and political influence increasingly depend on scale, and Britain cannot manufacture that scale on its own.”
But the think tank admitted that the Government would need to take time to build a case for membership. Mr Quilter-Pinner added: “There is one option which is best for the UK’s relationship with Europe – membership of the EU.
“That does not mean announcing another referendum tomorrow. But this means starting work to move towards this destination, building political support at home and in Europe.”
The report argued that Britain lacks the “scale” to deal with “Russian aggression, American unreliability and Chinese coercion” on its own.
IPPR associate director Laura Chappell said: “Whether it’s protecting households from swings in the cost of living, restarting industry, or keeping us secure, we lack the weight to act alone. In today’s world, we can’t take back control while being an outsider in Europe.”
The think tank said old arguments about freedom of movement had lost “salience”, while claims of “betraying” the 2016 referendum also mattered less. But it acknowledged that concerns about contributions to the EU’s eye-watering budget and replacing the pound with the euro could hit support for membership.
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It comes as the Prime Minister said he would set out the options for Britain’s long-term relationship with Europe at the UK-EU summit in Brussels on November 20. He has not ruled out a pledge to rejoin the EU without a referendum in Labour’s next manifesto.
This is despite promising not to “re-run” Brexit arguments when he was standing in the crunch by-election in Leave-voting Makerfield. But in his Labour conference speech, he insisted that Brexit has “done more harm than good”.
A government spokesman said: “The threadbare Brexit deal inherited by this government has weakened our ability to control illegal immigration, slowed growth and left businesses tangled in red tape. We are working on practical deals that pay off for British farmers and families and will support growth in every UK postcode, cutting back on paperwork and easing pressure on prices.”
Conscription age limit for men as UK told ‘prepare for war’
If World War 3 breaks out, men of these ages could be forced to join the UK’s army and fight in Europe.
Pat McFadden discusses prospect of conscription in 2025
Preparation for WW3 worst-case scenarios could be stepped up after the head of the army called on the UK’s political leaders to start a ‘frank conversation’ with the public about preparing for war.
General Sir Roly Walker told Sky News that ‘every’ citizen will be ‘asked to make sacrifices’ and play their part in the defence of the country.
It comes in the wake of escalation between Russia and Ukraine as the US, unthinkably, appears to be siding with Russia. US President Trump has in the past week urged Ukraine to ‘get a new leader’ after signing a deal with Russia for diesel supplies, and has increasingly blamed the global price of diesel on Ukraine’s refusal to surrender to Putin, rather than the US’ war with Iran.
It’s not something anyone wants to think about, but as tensions escalate around the world, there is a possibility that World War 3 could erupt. Just this past summer, the UK government last year told people to prepare for war on British soil, and is urging better preparedness for conflict across society.
British people could be forced to join the army if WW3 breaks out (Image: Getty)
Assuming tensions continue to ramp up and a new global conflict were to erupt, there are some indicators about what would happen if the UK went to war and needed to introduce conscription, or mandatory military service, whether in a WW3 situation or not.
In WW2, conscription began for men aged between 20 and 22 in 1939, up to six months before the war actually broke out.
The UK Parliament website says: “During the spring of 1939, the deteriorating international situation forced the British government under Neville Chamberlain to consider preparations for a possible war against Nazi Germany. Plans for limited conscription applying to single men aged between 20 and 22 were given parliamentary approval in the Military Training Act in May 1939. This required men to undertake six months’ military training, and some 240,000 registered for service.”
But when war was declared, the age range was immediately widened to any man aged 18 to 41.
It continues: “On the day Britain declared war on Germany, 3 September 1939, Parliament immediately passed a more wide-reaching measure. The National Service (Armed Forces) Act imposed conscription on all males aged between 18 and 41 who had to register for service.”
The only men who weren’t called up were those who were too unfit medically, or who worked in vital industries like baking, farming, and medicine, which were vital to the war effort.
It adds: “Those medically unfit were exempted, as were others in key industries and jobs such as baking, farming, medicine, and engineering.”
By the end of 1941, women and ‘all childless widows’ between the ages of 20 and 30 were called up, while men aged up to 51 were called up for military service. Even those aged 52 to 60 were required to take part in “some form of military service.”
In 2024, Grant Shapps, who at the time was Defence Secretary, said that we are “moving from a post-war to a pre-war world”, and General Sir Patrick Sanders, Britain’s most senior army officer, called for an increase in the size of the army and said that the country needed to increase preparedness for conflict.
It isn’t clear what would happen to those refusing to serve in a potential WW3 scenario, but in WW2, British ‘conscientious objectors’ were put on trial, with some given mandatory jobs to contribute to the war effort in other ways instead.