Former EU Brexit officials have warned that the UK would not enjoy “exceptional” terms if it decided to rejoin the EU, after Labour leadership candidates reopened the debate.
The question of whether Brexit should be reversed has returned to the spotlight over the weekend, with figures at the top of the party setting out their bids to be the next prime minister.
Former health secretary Wes Streeting, who has confirmed plans to stand in any leadership race, put a pitch to rejoin the trade bloc in the future at the heart of his first speech as a backbench MP.
But former officials familiar with the Brexit negotiations have warned Britain may not enjoy the special terms it once did if it were to begin negotiations to rejoin the bloc.
Former adviser on the EU’s Brexit taskforce, Georg Riekeles, said he did not think there would be “an appetite for opening up new decades of British exceptionalism”.
“There is a strategic need for the EU and the UK to work together, but I don’t think there would be an appetite for opening up new decades of British exceptionalism,” he told The Guardian.
“The price of re-entry would be membership on normal terms.”
While the EU has been clear that the UK would be allowed to rejoin the bloc should it want to, it is unlikely it would be allowed to on the same terms it had before.
The UK could have to join the Euro if it wanted to return, join the Schengen passport-free zone, and it would be unlikely to get the rebate it negotiated previously.
The UK rebate was a financial mechanism negotiated by Margaret Thatcher in 1984, reducing Britain’s EU budget contribution by around 66 per cent.
Mr Streeting’s intervention over the weekend forced leadership rival Andy Burnham to distance himself from his previous Remain stance and his desire to reverse the 2016 referendum, as he seeks to win a by-election in the leave-voting constituency of Makerfield.
Sir Keir Starmer has also raised the prospect of the UK rejoining the EU “years down the line”, in what has been seen as a threat to undermine Mr Burnham’s stance on Brexit.
Italy’s former Europe minister Sandro Gozi re-entry negotiations would “certainly” start with standard terms.
“It is clear that the tailor-made suit is gone, and it is clear that the negotiation of the UK should tackle all the issues which are foreseen for any candidate,” he told The Guardian.
The current MEP and chair of the European parliament’s delegation to the EU-UK parliamentary partnership assembly added: “[Brexit] has been a major disaster for the UK, but it has also been a loss for the EU If in a moment of such a huge global turmoil, the UK decided to ask to rejoin the EU, I think that for our political model it would be a great victory.”
