Andy Burnham is facing fresh pressure to scrap Labour’s Brexit ‘red lines’ after a major new poll found voters want Britain to develop closer ties with the European Union.

The new prime minister has vowed to honour Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to rule out rejoining the customs union and single market or allowing free movement of people, despite saying he wants to be “bolder” than his predecessor in resetting relations with the bloc.

But the poll, carried out by think tank British Future, found that most of the public (56 per cent) would support him going beyond Labour’s red lines. Another 10 per cent preferred a closer relationship that stopped short of crossing the lines and 16 per cent would either keep the status quo or prefer more divergence.

As he prepares for a summit with EU leaders later this year, there is also strong support for Mr Burnham to emerge with a historic agreement on a youth mobility scheme.

Some 57 per cent of voters support a reciprocal programme for 18–30-year-olds, with only 12 per cent opposed.

Sunder Katwala, director of the British Future think tank, which published the research, said: “Andy Burnham has pragmatic permission from voters to seek closer ties with Europe and to strike a deal on youth mobility this autumn. There's a real public appetite for practical cooperation – tempered with caution about free movement and the idea of another referendum.”

The think tank’s new report, Britain and Europe: How close should we get?, also found just one in five people think Brexit has been a success and voters would like better trade links with the EU.

But Mr Katwala added that the findings were not “a simple story of a nation that wants to rejoin. The public has some hard questions about trade-offs – on sovereignty, on migration, on how change should be decided – that neither the government nor its opponents have yet answered.”

“Politicians on both sides of the Brexit debate need to move beyond their comfort zone refighting the 2016 referendum if they are to persuade the public about the future choices of the decade to come,” he said.

Mr Burnham, like his predecessor, has also faced calls from senior figures within the party to go further with his reset of relations with the EU.

In an exclusive interview with in July, former Labour leader Neil Kinnock urged the new prime minister not to be “constrained” by the party’s Brexit red lines.

He said he was hopeful the UK was “now moving into a different phase of relationship with the European Union, and maybe Andy will have a different perspective – and not feel himself quite as constrained by the so-called ‘red lines’, which invited difficulty”.

But in August the new PM committed himself to honouring the red lines in a major blow to hopes that he would find a route for Britain back into the bloc.

In an interview last year, when he was still mayor of Greater Manchester, Mr Burnham said he wanted the UK to rejoin the EU.

But No 10 said the Burnham government remained “committed to the red lines set out in the manifesto. We’re not rejoining the European Union, and there will be no return to the customs union, the single market, or freedom of movement.”

The poll also found 46 per cent of those asked would vote to rejoin the EU, while 29 per cent would remain out, with the rest undecided. More than half, 57 per cent, now see Brexit as “more of a failure than a success”, while just 21 per cent say the opposite.

Andrew Lewin, the Labour MP for Welwyn Hatfield, said the report confirmed strong public support for a youth mobility deal “and should embolden our government to move at pace in the negotiations this autumn”.

“Finalising a deal should be one of our highest priorities before the end of this year," he added.

Jake Puddle, report co-author and Research Director at British Future, said that while young people are often assumed to be pro-rejoin, they found newer voters “feel more undecided, disengaged and unaware of the arguments of 2016. The mooted youth mobility scheme is a popular proposal, however – across all age groups – and offers one way to engage younger voices in what the UK-EU relationship could mean for them.”

Liberal Democrat Europe spokesperson Al Pinkerton said: “The country cannot afford for Andy Burnham to be continuity-Keir: hiding behind self-imposed red lines on Europe. It’s time the government starts acting in the national interest.”

Tom Brufatto, from Best for Britain, which campaigns for UK-EU reintegration, said: “The Youth Mobility Scheme is more than the crowd favourite policy amongst voters- it’s critical to delivering an overall package at the next UK-EU summit and serves as the springboard for all future relations Britain hopes to have with Brussels.”

A government spokesperson said: "We are building an ambitious, close relationship with the EU that will strengthen our economy and unlock good growth in every postcode."

The poll, of 3,007 UK adults, was carried out by Number Cruncher Politics from 2 to 16 June 2026.

What you will get by joining:

There are even more benefits if you subscribe for just £1 for seven months