Should the UK get a snap general election if Burnham tries to reverse Brexit?

1Andy Burnham (Image: Getty)Prime Minister Andy Burnham is ready to establish closer ties with the EU, as the "status quo is not enough for Britain". In a long statement to the MPs, he insisted that the public will be "the boss" regarding any future closer relationship with the union. However, he also repeatedly refused to rule out taking the UK back into the EU single market after the general election, claiming it would boost economic growth.

"It would be a major dereliction of duty to turn away" from the conversation about the EU-UK relationship, Burnham said, criticising the Brexit deal negotiated by the last Tory government.

Burnham declared he would use an EU summit next month as a launchpad for restoring ties. He also said he would meet European commission chief Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels on November 20.

But his latest war on Brexit triggered widespread fury. Reform UK's Nigel Farage said the PM's actions are an insult to the 17.4 million people who voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum.

The Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused Burnham of "unpicking" the original Brexit deal and "blurting out everything he wants" from the EU, warning that is "not how you conduct negotiations".

Ben Judah, a special adviser to David Lammy in the Foreign Office until earlier this year, believes the prime minister could pull off an election victory to rival Boris Johnson's in 2019 if he seized the moment on Europe. The former government adviser thinks Burnham should make undoing Brexit the centrepiece of the campaign.

"This potential impending election would undoubtedly be framed as a quest to secure a personal mandate for 'Manchester Andy'. In reality, it is a smash-and-grab mission to hike taxes and fleece the British public," said the Daily Express columnist Esther McVey.

So what do you think? Vote in our poll and join the debate in the comments section.