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UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham indicated he was open to readopting the European Union's free movement rules as part of Britain's future relationship with the bloc, said a report published Sunday.
The Labour prime minister has promised to lay out different options for closer relations with Europe around the time of a long-awaited UK-EU summit in Brussels next month.
Burnham, who has even touted the possibility of Britain applying to rejoin the EU one day, said the country should have an "honest discussion" about how immigration to the UK has changed since Brexit.
Immigration was one of the main reasons for Britons voting narrowly to leave the EU during the divisive 2016 referendum that was triggered by the right-wing Conservatives.
Immigration 'is different' since Brexit
Burnham said immigration into Britain had been "different" since the country left the EU in early 2020.
"It was a type of immigration that perhaps wasn't as difficult (as now)," he told the Sunday Times newspaper.
"Revolving door migration where people would come and then go back is different.
"The balance of migration has changed, hasn't it, since then? I think we've just got to have an honest discussion about those things."
Burnham, in office since July, has committed to predecessor Keir Starmer's 2024 election-winning manifesto which ruled out the return of free movement, single market membership or a customs union. But the question of reciprocal youth mobility has pushed free movement to the top of the agenda.
The project faces strong opposition and legal hurdles
That means he may seek to win a mandate for any major change in Britain's relationship with the EU at the next general election, which is currently not expected until 2029.
Burnham told the Sunday Times, "I can't see myself ever recommending anything that would involve joining" the euro or the Schengen borderless area, which the UK was not a part of pre-Brexit.
Nigel Farage, leader of the far-right and anti-immigrant Reform UK party, called Burnham's comments on free movement a "total betrayal of Brexit Britain".
Burnham and EU leaders are hopeful of striking deals on food and drink, youth mobility and emissions tradings when they meet on 20 November.