Labour MP Chris Ward, one of the architects of the party's Brexit red lines, has said they should be given a "dignified retirement" by the next general election, arguing that the world has changed since they were written into Labour's 2024 manifesto.

Ward, the MP for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven and a former chief adviser to Keir Starmer when Starmer was shadow Brexit secretary, made the case in an article for the Guardian published on Monday 9 November 2026.

What the red lines rule out

The red lines rule out rejoining the European Union, rejoining the single market, rejoining the customs union and restoring freedom of movement. Ward co-authored them for Labour's 2024 manifesto, and he said they were "designed precisely to close down the debate and to narrow the target that Brexit had become for Labour".

"By the next general election, however, those red lines will have served their purpose," he wrote. "They should be given a well-earned and dignified retirement. Frankly, they no longer speak to the world as it is in 2026, let alone as it may be over the years to come."

Security is the reason for change

Ward said the main reason for abandoning the red lines was security. He argued that the UK "could no longer rely on the Americans", a major geopolitical shift that merited a full reappraisal of Britain's diplomatic relationships. "That question was unthinkable in 2016, but it is unavoidable in 2026," he wrote.

He said Starmer had twice had to scramble alliances together, on Ukraine and on the strait of Hormuz, because the UK could no longer rely on the United States. "It would now be brave in the extreme to continue to pin our future security, and that of Europe, on the outcome of US elections," he wrote.

Ward also said there was little compelling argument for rejoining the single market without full EU membership, saying he had "never understood the argument for the latter without the former". Instead, he said supporters of a new relationship should argue from the security and cyber threats the UK and Europe now face every day.

What happens next

Ward said there should be a public debate on whether the UK should formally rejoin the EU or seek a form of associate membership like Canada. He said the prime minister would "need to be clear as to why now is the right time to reopen the Brexit debate, what we are seeking, and why it is so important to our national interest".

He added that he still believed the red lines were strategically right for Labour at the time, and said the reset deal expected at next month's UK-EU summit would show real benefits could be delivered within them, including cheaper prices for businesses, a youth mobility scheme and the return of the Erasmus+ scheme.

At a Brexit reset meeting on 20 November in Brussels, the UK is due to sign new agreements on agriculture and food, emissions trading and a youth mobility scheme. Prime Minister Andy Burnham will attend the European Political Community summit in Dublin on Thursday, where he is expected to press the reset deal forward and meet European leaders for the first time as prime minister.

Burnham has previously said an option to rejoin the single market could be offered in a Labour manifesto, but that fully rejoining the EU would need a referendum. Ward is the latest prominent figure from Starmer's administration to call for a closer relationship, after former chancellor Rachel Reeves said it was right for Burnham to consider rejoining.