Burnham says Britain will be ‘bolder’ in building closer ties with EU
Andy Burnham has suggested that Britain plans to take a "bolder" approach towards forging closer relations with the European Union .
Speaking to the President of the European Council Antonio Costa during an overnight train journey to Kyiv , Ukraine , on Sunday, the Prime Minister emphasised that "greater co-operation" was required across all sectors.
Initially scheduled for July, the meeting has been postponed to a yet-to-be-confirmed date later this year.
During his visit to Ukraine on Monday, Mr Burnham agreed to supply the nation with blueprints to produce long-range missiles .
A Downing Street spokesperson said: “The Prime Minister met the President of the European Council Antonio Costa on the train to Kyiv last night, as the two leaders travelled into the city to mark Independence Day.
“It was a vital moment to show unity and solidarity with Ukraine, the leaders agreed.
“Turning to the UK’s relationship with the European Union , the two leaders underlined the importance of being ambitious to drive a step change in relations.
“The UK had to be bolder in terms of getting closer to the bloc, the Prime Minister said.”
“That included building on the close defence and security ties already forged between the UK and European allies to drive greater cooperation across all areas of the relationship,” he added.
“The UK-EU summit set to be held later this year, would offer a platform to continue that work, the leaders agreed.
“Both looked forward to seeing one and another at the Coalition of the Willing later today.”
Economically, forging closer ties with Europe could provide a £92bn GDP boost to the UK, according to new economic research.
Commissioned by Best for Britain, which campaigns for full UK-EU reintegration, the research undertaken by Frontier Economics suggests at least 90 per cent of Brexit's economic hit could be recouped by the UK rejoining the EU.
During the same journey to Kyiv, he spoke to the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Luc Frieden.
5News aggregated this summary from the outlet’s public feed. The full article, with all the context, is on www.independent.co.uk — the content belongs to The Independent Politics.
