Why the Prime Minister wants to talk about Brexit again

I have had a ringside seat at it all, from the Conservative election victory in 2015, with the party's promise in its manifesto that year to offer "a straight in-out referendum on our membership of the European Union by the end of 2017."

And that, you will remember, was merely the start, as years of wrangling began. Two general elections came and went in 2017 and 2019 and it took the two prime ministers after David Cameron, first Theresa May and then Boris Johnson, before the UK left the European Union at 23:00 on Friday, 31 January 2020.

With the arrival of Andy Burnham as prime minister, that has changed, despite what he said just a few months before he arrived in Downing Street.

Which brings us onto the second element of his case, in the medium term. What might Labour promise in its next general election manifesto? The prime minister told me a fortnight ago the manifesto could promise an in-out referendum.

"This country in the next decade needs to know where it's going. There are no assumptions here, and as I said, the British public will be the boss of whatever is decided," he said.

"They weighed the arguments and made a decision. The least they are owed is politicians willing to defend it," argues Lord Frost, external, a former Brexit minister and chief Brexit negotiator in the Telegraph.

Andy Burnham hopes to make an argument that what he will portray as a sensible, pragmatic deepening of the relationship with Brussels can help cut illegal immigration and boost economic growth.

And, strikingly, his attempt at goading his opponents went further still. He told The Rest Is Politics podcast that upon arriving in Downing Street, he had asked if there was Russian interference in the Brexit referendum.

In the Commons, his language appeared a little softer. He told MPs it was "inconceivable" to think that Russia did not try to interfere. A double negative deployed this time, about alleged attempts at interference.

The former Prime Minister Boris Johnson added that he had asked the same question as Andy Burnham did when he became Foreign Secretary, external "and they replied that there was no evidence of any successful interference in the 2016 referendum, by Russia or any other power".

And so a debate resumes about the difference between attempted interference, interference and successful interference.