For millions of young people in England, Brexit was never really their choice. When the 2016 referendum took place, anyone under 18 had no say in a decision that would go on to shape their job prospects, travel freedoms, and future opportunities in ways that are still being felt today.
Now, with Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham making noise about closer cooperation with Europe, a growing number of young people are daring to feel something they haven’t felt in a while when it comes to Britain’s relationship with the continent: hopeful.
Burnham has been one of the more vocal figures in English politics when it comes to pushing for a reset with the EU. While the government in Westminster has moved cautiously on the issue, Burnham has spoken openly about the damage done by the current distance between Britain and its nearest neighbours, and what rebuilding those links could mean for cities like Manchester.
For young people who grew up watching Brexit unfold from the sidelines, that kind of talk lands differently than it does for older generations who actually cast a vote in 2016.
The numbers have long told a clear story. Polling at the time of the referendum showed younger voters overwhelmingly wanted to remain in the EU. Those aged 18 to 24 backed Remain by a significant margin. But turnout among that group was lower than older age brackets, and of course anyone under 18 was locked out entirely. The result was a decision made largely by older voters, with consequences falling hardest on the young.
What followed was a decade of disruption. Freedom of movement ended, making it far harder for young English people to live, work, or study across Europe without jumping through bureaucratic hoops. The Erasmus student exchange programme, which had sent thousands of British students to universities across the continent every year, was scrapped and replaced with a much smaller domestic scheme. Graduate job opportunities that once stretched across 27 countries suddenly narrowed.
None of that happened in isolation. The cost of living crisis, a battered housing market, and stagnant wages have all piled pressure on younger generations at the same time. Brexit didn’t cause all of those problems. But for many young people, it removed tools that might have helped them deal with them.
That’s the backdrop against which Burnham’s pro-Europe positioning is being received. Youth-led groups campaigning for closer ties with the EU have grown steadily in recent years, and there’s a sense among many young activists that the political conversation is finally starting to shift in their direction.
Burnham himself has framed the argument in practical terms rather than relitigating the old referendum battles. His focus has been on trade, investment, and regional economic growth, pointing out that cities in the north of England have particular reason to want smoother relationships with European partners. It’s a pitch built around opportunity rather than nostalgia, which is exactly the kind of language that tends to cut through with younger audiences who have no particular attachment to how things were before 2016.
There’s also a generational maths argument that keeps getting louder. The electorate is slowly but steadily shifting. Young people who couldn’t vote in 2016 are now in their twenties and turning out at elections. Polling consistently shows that support for rejoining the EU, or at minimum pursuing a much closer relationship with it, is strongest among younger age groups. Any politician with an eye on the future has good reason to pay attention to where that sentiment is heading.
Of course, talk of rejoining the EU formally remains politically toxic in many quarters, and Burnham has been careful not to go that far. The current debate is more about resetting the tone, exploring youth mobility schemes, and finding areas of practical cooperation that don’t require reopening the full Brexit argument. But even that more modest vision represents a significant shift from the hard lines drawn in the years immediately after the referendum.
For young people in England who felt voiceless during one of the biggest political decisions in modern British history, the fact that a senior political figure is speaking their language on Europe at all feels meaningful. Whether it translates into real policy change remains to be seen. But the conversation has started, and that is more than many of them had a few years ago.