Labour’s Brexit red lines ready for ‘dignified retirement’, says their co-author

Chris Ward co-authored the red lines on the UK’s relationship with the EU in Labour’s 2024 manifesto. Photograph: House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA View image in fullscreen Chris Ward co-authored the red lines on the UK’s relationship with the EU in Labour’s 2024 manifesto. Photograph: House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA Exclusive: MP Chris Ward believes ditching pledges and forming closer ties with EU would protect it from global threats One of the architects of Keir Stamer’s Brexit red lines has called for Andy Burnham to abandon them at the next election, saying a new relationship with the EU would protect the UK from global threats. The call is the latest voice from a prominent figure in Starmer’s administration for a faster transition to a far closer European relationship, after the former chancellor Rachel Reeves said it was right for Burnham to consider rejoining. No 10 clarifies Andy Burnham’s stance on freedom of movement Chris Ward, one of Starmer’s closest confidants in politics and one of the ministers who worked on the EU reset, said that it was the security relationship that meant a change was now imperative. The Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven said it was now time to give a “a dignified retirement” to the red lines, which rule out rejoining the EU, the single market, the customs union and restoring freedom of movement. Ward also suggested there was little compelling argument for rejoining the single market without full EU membership, saying he had “never understood the argument for the latter without the former”. But he said the main reason for abandoning the red lines was that the UK “could no longer rely on the Americans” which was a major geopolitical shift that merited an entire reappraisal of Britain’s diplomatic relationships. “That question was unthinkable in 2016, but it is unavoidable in 2026,” he wrote in an article for the Guardian. Ward, who was Starmer’s chief adviser as shadow Brexit secretary and who co-authored the red lines in Labour’s manifesto in 2024, said that they had now outlived their usefulness and should no longer be part of Labour’s future thinking. Britain cannot deal effectively with geopolitical crises without rejoining EU, says thinktank He remains close to the former prime minister and said that the drive to renew the relationship with the EU may prove the defining political moment of this autumn.