UK cannot 'cherry pick' EU single market deal, Barnier warns

The EU's former Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, has warned that the UK cannot "cherry pick" which elements of the single market it subscribes to. Speaking on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, he said there was no "single market à la carte" menu from which the UK could pick and choose.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said that rejoining the bloc's internal market was among the options he could pursue as part of a reshaping of ties with Europe. Since becoming prime minister in July, Burnham has suggested he could commit Labour to pursuing a much closer future relationship with Europe, including asking to rejoin the organisation as a full member, though he has ruled out major changes before the next election.

Barnier said the "door is open" within Europe to the UK rejoining as an EU member. But he insisted that any move to rejoin the single market would require the UK to follow the same terms as other members.

He added that this included compliance with regulations designed to promote the circulation of goods, services, capital and people, referred to collectively within EU institutions as the "four freedoms". In his words: "There will be no possibility to have one freedom and not the other. The four freedoms are clearly the four conditions to be inside a single market."

The single market is a system that allows goods to be freely traded without border controls. Barnier led the EU delegation during Brexit talks between 2016 and 2021, and had a three-month spell as French prime minister in 2024.

Of the four freedoms, the free movement of people — which allows EU citizens to live and work elsewhere in the bloc without a visa — was a key issue during the 2016 Brexit referendum. Burnham's immediate predecessor, Sir Keir Starmer, ruled out re-establishing it in Labour's 2024 election manifesto, and any move to advocate it again would prove a key dividing line with the Conservatives and Reform UK at a future poll.

Burnham recently said in an interview that he would not re-establish free movement of people without a referendum, prompting Downing Street to clarify that he was not advocating its return at this point.

He has previously said he wanted to lay out "different options" for the relationship with Europe at the Brussels summit later this month, before trying to find a consensus with the British public on a new relationship.

Both sides are hoping to use a meeting in Brussels in 10 days' time to unveil deals on food standards, youth visas and re-linking British industry to the EU's carbon trading regime. His predecessors have struck a series of deals with the EU on different aspects of how the UK and EU interact post-Brexit.

Barnier also predicted that EU countries would reject reinstating the British financial rebate, first negotiated in 1985, that lowered UK contributions towards the EU's annual budget while it was a member. In Barnier's words, the UK's decision to leave the bloc had created "a new situation", meaning a new rebate would be "off the table".

Barnier also compared Reform leader Nigel Farage to French politician Marine Le Pen. He said: "We have our own Farage. It is Mrs Le Pen. The same populism, the same lies, the same false promises." Asked by Kuenssberg to clarify what he was referring to with his accusation of lies, Barnier said "for instance, when Mr Farage and Mr Johnson promised the UK people to get back £350 million per week, it was not true, it was not possible. It was a lie".

The Vote Leave campaign's bus carried a slogan saying Britain sent £350 million a week to the EU, adding: "Let's fund our NHS instead". Boris Johnson said in 2017 that "once we have settled our accounts, we will take back control of roughly £350 million per week". Critics have said the £350 million per week was an approximate sum representing a "gross contribution" that did not take into account the UK's £75 million-a-week rebate nor the EU's investments in the UK. Johnson has since defended the claim, including in his memoirs published in 2024.

Farage, who led Leave.EU and was not part of the Vote Leave campaign and so not connected to the £350 million claim, said: "It is the same old Barnier — arrogant, out of touch and a bully. He vindicates our decision to leave every time he opens his mouth."