Could Britain rejoin the EU faster than other candidates? What officials say

The question of whether the United Kingdom could be fast-tracked back into the European Union has returned to public debate after Prime Minister Andy Burnham said his government could, in principle, move toward full EU membership, in a BBC interview reported by Canadian Affairs. EU officials have responded by saying a UK application could be processed more quickly than for other candidates, but only on tougher terms than Britain had before Brexit.

What EU officials are saying about a fast track

Sandro Gozi, the Italian MEP who chairs the European Parliament's delegation to the EU-UK Parliamentary Partnership Assembly, told The Independent that a British return would be treated as a win for the whole continent rather than a defeat for the UK. He said the process could move faster than for other candidates because of the institutional memory that remains from when the UK was a member, and because of the alignment that already exists between British and EU rules, according to the report carried by AOL.

Brussels officials cited by that report pointed to Finland's accession, which took roughly three years partly because Finland was already inside the European Economic Area, as a comparison for how quickly a technically aligned country can move through the process.

The conditions Brussels is attaching

Gozi said the UK would need to give up its preference for special exemptions and accept the same obligations as any other candidate country, including adoption of the euro. The report also said the UK would lose the roughly 66% reduction in budget contributions it had negotiated as a rebate before leaving, and would face higher financial contributions than during its previous membership.

Legal analysis published by Diplomacy and Law notes that re-accession would run through Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union, the standard accession procedure, rather than any special return clause. That requires unanimous agreement among all 27 member states at key stages, consent from the European Parliament, and ratification by every national parliament. The analysis states that Britain would not be guaranteed its former exemptions on the euro, Schengen or the previous budget rebate, and that any new opt-out, similar to Denmark's existing euro exemption, would require fresh agreement during accession talks rather than automatic reinstatement.

Political backdrop: Burnham's comments and European reaction

Burnham became Prime Minister in July 2026 after Keir Starmer resigned and Burnham won the resulting Labour leadership contest unopposed, according to Wikipedia. In a BBC interview reported by Canadian Affairs, Burnham said Brexit had caused significant economic harm and a decade of slow growth, and set out a range of options from staying as the UK is now, to joining the customs union or single market, to full membership.

French President Emmanuel Macron responded positively, saying it would be good news for both Britain and Europe if the UK moved toward rejoining, while cautioning that the UK could not pick and choose which EU freedoms to accept while staying outside the union, the same report said. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Spain would welcome a British application to rejoin.

What British voters think

Polling by YouGov for The Times, conducted October 4–5, 2026 among 2,312 British adults, found that 64% of Britons think a referendum should be held before any government decision to rejoin the EU, against 23% who think the government should be able to decide on its own. That preference held across voters of all parties.

In a hypothetical referendum, the same YouGov poll found 52% would vote to rejoin against 27% who would vote to stay outside, with 22% of people who voted Leave in 2016 saying they would now switch to rejoin. Support split sharply by party: 73–79% of Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green voters backed rejoining, compared with 28% of Conservative voters and 9% of Reform UK voters.

A separate Survation poll from June 2026, cited by Canadian Affairs, put support for rejoining at 55% if a referendum were held again. Wikipedia's overview of re-accession polling describes a 2026 average of roughly 55% in favour of rejoining versus about 32% wanting to stay out, a gap that has widened since pro-rejoin sentiment first overtook pro-exit sentiment in summer 2021.

What is not yet known

No UK government has filed an application to rejoin, and Burnham has not set a timetable; the diplomacyandlaw.com analysis notes he has spoken of rejoining potentially happening within his lifetime rather than as an immediate step. UK law currently contains no automatic requirement for a referendum on EU accession, meaning Parliament would need to pass legislation to set the terms of any future vote. The next UK general election is not due until 2029.