‘We miss you’: Spain’s Pedro Sanchez says UK should rejoin the EU a decade on from Brexit
SPANISH prime minister Pedro Sanchez said the should UK rejoin the EU – in what marked one of the clearest endorsements yet from an EU leader for a prospective British return.
In an interview with New Statesman, Sanchez said Spain would support British membership should the UK decide to start the process again, stressing there was a ‘clear need to have the UK on board again, especially nowadays.’
“We miss the UK within the European Union,” he added.
The comments come just days before the 10th anniversary of the UK’s formal departure from the EU in 2020, a move that reshaped political and economic relationships across the continent.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has ruled out an immediate bid to rejoin the EU’s single market or customs union, with the British government instead pursuing a ‘reset’ of post-Brexit relations focused on trade and security cooperation.
But in June 2025, Spain, the UK and the EU reached a landmark political agreement on Gibraltar, with officials agreeing measures to remove physical checks on people and goods at the land border between Spain and the Rock.
UK foreign secretary David Lammy described the deal as a ‘practical solution which safeguards sovereignty, jobs and growth.’
Lammy’s Spanish counterpart, Jose Manuel Albares, welcomed the pact as linking Gibraltar to the EU’s free-movement area without affecting British sovereignty.
Brexit was triggered by a UK referendum in June 2016, in which a majority of voters chose to leave the EU.
The UK formally exited the bloc on 31 January 2020, ending more than four decades of membership.
In subsequent years, negotiations produced a trade and cooperation agreement but left contentious issues such as Northern Ireland’s status and Gibraltar’s border unresolved for much of the post-Brexit period.
Sanchez’s comments came at a moment of geopolitical upheaval, with US President Donald Trump renewing a push for control of Greenland, claiming strategic necessity and sparking concern among Greenlandic leaders and European allies.
Tensions between the United States and other countries worldwide also remain high, with analysts warning that any military escalation in Iran could trigger broader conflict.
In Latin America, Trump’s administration oversaw a military operation in Venezuela that led to the ousting of President Nicolas Maduro earlier in 2026 – an action criticised by several world leaders, including Sanchez, for its geopolitical implications.
Sanchez has repeatedly challenged Trump’s posture on global political issues – refusing to raise Spain’s defence spending to the 5% threshold requested by Trump and declining to join the US-led ‘Board of Peace’, citing a lack of representation for the Palestinian government.
“We are a pro-Atlantic government,” Sanchez told New Statesman. “But that doesn’t mean submission.”
READ MORE: Spain’s former king told British diplomats ‘we don’t want Gibraltar’, new book claims
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