LONDON: Andy Burnham, frontrunner to become leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, threw his weight behind the idea of a referendum on the country’s EU membership, and said he would demand it took place in 2016 if he becomes party leader.
Burnham’s pledge to back a referendum is a break with the left-leaning Labour Party’s existing stance, which has been to only back a referendum if there was a substantial further shift of powers from London to Brussels.
He said the vote was needed in 2016, earlier than the Conservative government’s current timetable for 2017, to clear up uncertainty for British business, as he launched a leadership campaign with a series of interviews on Sunday.
Under my leadership the Labour party will not be a grudging presence on that stage. We will now embrace (the referendum.) It should be brought forward to 2016,” Burnham told the Observer newspaper on Sunday.
It is not going to be in anybody’s interest for this to rumble on through this parliament,” he added.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, re-elected in the general election earlier in May, said this week he would hold a vote on British EU membership earlier than the end of 2017 if possible, after reshaping Britain’s ties with the EU.
Labour’s previous leader Ed Miliband, who opposed the EU referendum, quit in the wake of the party’s heavy election defeat, triggering a battle to shift its political stance ahead of a leadership contest to be decided by Sept. 12.
