CULTURE SECRETARY Lisa Nandy dismissed Labour leadership contender Wes Streeting’s call for Britain to rejoin the EU as “odd” yesterday.

She condemned the former health secretary’s “sudden focus” on rejoining the bloc.

Speaking at the Progress think tank’s conference in central London on Saturday, Mr Streeting described Brexit as a “catastrophic mistake” and broke the ice on a topic that Labour has long avoided revisiting.

“We need a new special relationship with the EU, because Britain’s future lies with Europe — and one day back in the European Union,” he said.

In response, Mr Streeting’s potential rival Andy Burnham, seeking to stand in a by-election in Brexit-voting, Reform UK-facing Makerfield, told ITV that there might be a case for rejoining the EU in the long run but “I’m not advocating that in this by-election.”

Mr Burnham told the BBC: “We’ve got to see this as a moment to reclaim the Labour Party, to save it from where it’s been: we can’t just carry on as we are.”

Yesterday Ms Nandy told the BBC: “I actually think this is just a bit odd. I listened to what Wes had to say very carefully yesterday, and I know that he’s got a strong view about this and always has had, that we shouldn’t have left the European Union.

“Frankly, that’s one that I share. I campaigned for Remain, I think it [Brexit] was a mistake and I think the Brexit deal has been a real problem for us. But I don’t really understand why the sudden focus on Europe.

“We’re already, as a government, trying to repair in a pragmatic way the needless damage that was done by that poor Brexit deal to people’s living standards in towns like mine without reopening the circular arguments that we ended up in as a country.”

On Sky News, she also dismissed speculation about a Labour leadership contest. 
She said: “Every hour, on the hour, for the last week I’ve read that Wes Streeting was about to launch a challenge; that Andy Burnham was about to contest every seat in Greater Manchester, including my own; that Angela Rayner was written off, that Angela Rayner was now challenging; and most of it has turned out to be just froth and nonsense.”