Streeting: Burnham is better than Blair at talking to the public

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Britain’s defense secretary — who had hoped to be PM himself — credits his boss with the political skill to navigate difficult public conversations about Europe.

November 2, 2026 8:34 pm CET

BRUSSELS — U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham is better at talking to the public than Tony Blair, Wes Streeting asserts — and it’s a reason why a serious conversation about reversing Brexit could begin within weeks.

Speaking to POLITICO during a European swing through Brussels and Berlin on Monday, the British defense secretary said that while Blair was a “generational political leader,” the former Labour leader lacked Burnham’s “conversational style” which will be useful when helping discuss the “trauma” of Brexit.

Burnham, who inherited active discussions from his predecessor Keir Starmer about resetting Britain's relationship with the EU, has said that he hopes Britain will rejoin the bloc within his lifetime. The British PM is 56.

Streeting — who has long been a pro-EU voice within his party — reiterated that he is in favor of rejoining the EU: “My position on the EU was clear in 2016. It was clear when I had a tilt at the leadership, and I haven’t changed my view.”

However, he warned that renegotiating Britain’s relationship — including rejoining — would not be simple. “Leaving was a very complicated process, and rejoining would also be a very complicated process,” he added.

Officials from Britain and the European Union will meet for Brexit reset talks on Nov. 20 focused on a narrow set of cooperation areas rather than a broader rejoin push.

Streeting said that “around the summit” the U.K. government will start to have a conversation with the public and the European Commission over “if we were more ambitious about the relationship, what could that look like?”

“Once we’ve got a clearer view ourselves of what we really want, and the public have got a clearer sense of where they are, then I think we're in the territory of thinking: 'Okay, so what would we want in the next manifesto, is there consensus that could be reached even with other political parties?'”

Burnham’s pro-Europe push since becoming prime minister earlier this year has led to speculation that he will call an early general election to secure a mandate for the various long-running, complex and expensive policy problems he wants to tackle. 

“I think the only place that an early general election exists is in the speculation of column writers and the talking points of the Conservative Party's leadership,” Streeting said, adding: “I don’t know how many more times Andy or members of the cabinet can say no early election before it sinks in.”