Andy Burnham has said the UK needs an ‘honest discussion’ about how its best possible relationship with the European Union might look – even if it means a return to freedom of movement.
Since his speech to the Labour Party conference last month, the prime minister has argued for a fresh look at Brexit ten years on from the referendum.
He has said the UK’s departure from the EU did ‘more harm than good’ and pledged to use an upcoming summit with the bloc to explore different options for the future.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, he said those different options could include a return to freedom of movement – one of the most divisive issues in the 2016 campaign.
Free movement allows anyone within the European Union to live and work anywhere else in the bloc with the same terms as locals.
The latest intervention from the PM has provoked the ire of opposition politicians from the Conservatives and Reform, who are accusing Burnham of reopening damaging debates.
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Reform leader Nigel Farage called Burnham’s suggestion a ‘total betrayal of Brexit Britain’, adding: ‘He is also deluded to say immigration was different when we were members of the EU.’
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said returning to free movement would mean ‘handing back control of our borders and allowing uncontrolled migration from across Europe’.
He said: ‘The British people voted to end free movement, and there can be no return to it.’
Speaking to the Sunday Times, Burnham said Brexit had changed the nature of migration to the UK, with more people staying permanently instead of heading back to their home countries after a period.
He said: ‘Freedom of movement had very significant challenges associated with it and I spoke about them in my previous time in parliament.
‘But, at the same time, it was a type of immigration that perhaps wasn’t as difficult [as it currently is]. Revolving door migration where people would come and then go back is different.’
The PM added that he could not see himself ‘ever recommending anything that would involve joining the euro or Schengen’ – neither of which the UK participated in before Brexit.
Since the UK left the EU at the start of 2020, net migration from the EU has fallen into negative territory with more leaving than arriving.
However, net migration from outside the EU skyrocketed in the years after Brexit and reached a record high of more than 900,000 before starting to dip again recently.
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There have also been questions over an apparent shift in Burnham’s own stance from before the Makerfield by-election, when he seemed reluctant to reopen arguments from the Brexit years.
Speaking at a conference in Leeds in May, he said: ‘My view is that Brexit has been damaging, but I also believe the last thing we should do right now is rerun those arguments.
‘Britain will be stuck in a permanent rut if we’re just constantly arguing and people are pulling away from each other.’
In an appearance on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Housing Secretary Angela Rayner argued the PM’s latest stance is ‘exactly what he said a few months ago’.
She explained: ‘We’re ten years on from the referendum, we’ve been really clear in our manifesto what those red lines are.
‘But we’ve got a summit coming up and the prime minister is looking at a ten-year plan, we’ve seen the damage that has been done – 20% down on exports.
‘So we want to see what relationship we can have with Europe, and the prime minister is very clear as we go into that summit, we should be having an honest conversation about how Britain can get the best deal going forward for the next decade.’
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