French President Emmanuel Macron has expressed a positive reaction to the idea of the UK rejoining the EU.

French president, Emmanuel Macron, has reacted warmly to Andy Burnham’s suggestion that the UK could rejoin the EU. “Welcome back,” the French leader said in English with a smile at a news conference in Madrid on Wednesday. Macron continued in French: a “If the British want to come back and if the prime minister is moving in that direction, I think that is very good news, both for his country and for the Europeans.” Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said his country would open its arms to any bid from the UK to rejoin the EU. The two leaders were responding to the British prime minister’s speech at the Labour party conference in which Burnham said Britain would not have a clear path “until we decide on a long-term relationship with what is still our largest market” and that Brexit had “done more harm than good”. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/30/macron-welcome-back-burnham-suggestion-uk-could-rejoin-eu?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

The Made in Europe issue does seem to offer a decent excuse. — Macron ‘has reacted warmly to Andy Burnham’s suggestion that the UK could rejoin the EU. “Welcome back,” the French leader said in English with a smile at a news conference in Madrid on Wednesday. Macron continued in French: “If the British want to come back and if the prime minister is moving in that direction, I think that is very good news, both for his country and for the Europeans.” Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said his country would open its arms to any bid from the UK to rejoin the EU. … In recent weeks Brussels has again mooted British membership of the customs union as an answer to the bloc’s Made in Europe policy, which could exclude British clean technology and electric vehicles from valuable European subsidy programmes and public contracts. But EU officials also stress that joining the customs union would require full alignment with EU trade policy and tariffs.’ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/30/macron-welcome-back-burnham-suggestion-uk-could-rejoin-eu