Stay Out launches anti-rejoin push before Burnham's UK-EU summit

Stay Out launched its campaign against the UK rejoining the European Union ahead of a UK-EU summit next week. The group argues any future attempt to rejoin would hit taxpayers and says the country should "move on and spend our money on our own priorities". Its timing puts it directly against Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who is exploring closer ties with the bloc.

Burnham is expected to sign new agreements covering food, energy and youth mobility on 20 November, making the case that a "win-win" deal can be struck with Brussels. Stay Out was set up to argue the opposite — that closer alignment risks dragging Britain back toward full membership.

The campaign has backing from Lord Gove, who chaired the Vote Leave campaign during the 2016 EU referendum. He warned that reopening the Brexit question would "commit the country to another decade of fractious negotiations". In his words, "rejoining would mean handing back control of our laws, borders, money and trade, and paying a good deal more for membership than we did before." Gove added that people are "desperate for Westminster to get on with delivering on their priorities" instead of looking back at the EU.

Stay Out is chaired by Oliver Lewis, another Vote Leave veteran who also served as deputy chief negotiator for the UK government in trade talks with the bloc. Lewis framed the campaign as exhaustion with the old argument: "The country has had enough of arguing about Europe, and it is time to move on and spend our money on our own priorities."

The fight now lands squarely on 20 November, when Burnham is due to sign the food, energy and youth mobility agreements at the summit. Stay Out's answer is already on the table: no return to membership, and no reopening of the referendum debate.