Brecon

Andy Burnham says everything is on the table with the EU.

Is it time Britain had an honest conversation about rejoining?

I mean, this to me feels like Back to the Future, I must say, because when I started on this programme, it was in the ferment of Brexit debates, and my goodness, what a baptism of fire that was.

Is it time Britain had an honest conversation about rejoining, Stephen? Pros and cons.

It's definitely time to have an honest conversation about our relationship with the European Union.

We had a debate, we had a vote back in 2016.

People voted Leave or Remain for all sorts of different reasons.

But here we are now, ten years later, and it is absolutely clear, as the Prime Minister said, that Brexit has done more harm than good.

16,000 companies have completely stopped exporting to the EU.

Exports to the EU down by nearly 20%.

It has weakened us on the global stage.

That's true of products, not of services, of course.

This is exports of goods.

It's down by 20% to the EU.

It's weakened us on the global stage.

It's made it much more difficult in a turbulent world in which we live, where there are three clear blocks, really.

United States, China and the European Union.

I believe strongly that there is strength in numbers.

And... not being in the European Union has definitely weakened our position from that point of view.

So in every measure, it is clear that Brexit has done more harm than good.

Now, the question is about political leadership.

And in Andy Burnham, we have a prime minister who is prepared to have that honest conversation.

who is prepared to say, I'm not just going to try and brush everything under the carpet and pretend everything is hunky dory.

I am going to address the challenges that our country faces.

I'm going to address them by saying we need to have a debate about what our long term future relationship with the European Union should look like.