Andy Burnham’s call for the UK to consider a return to free movement with Europe has been backed by senior cabinet ministers including Angela Rayner but risks causing concern among fellow red wall MPs.
The prime minister made his plea for an “honest discussion” about free movement in an interview with the Sunday Times, making clear that staying out of it would no longer be a red line in talks with the EU.
Burnham 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 now].
“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.”
His remarks were supported by Rayner, the housing secretary, who told Sky News that it was “just pragmatism”. She said: “It’s about what is the best deal for Britain and that’s what we are asking the public to look at. The prime minister is clear that you can’t take anything off the table when you’re having a conversation.”
Stella Creasy, a Labour MP and the chair of the Labour Movement for Europe, said Burnham was right that the UK was “long overdue for a grownup conversation about what EU freedom of movement actually means to our supply chains and for jobs for British citizens”.
A number of senior cabinet ministers are keen for the UK to form a much closer relationship with the EU to help boost growth, potentially involving a return to the single market and accepting free movement as a result. Those in favour of reopening the discussion include Ed Miliband, the foreign secretary.
However, Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, is among those who have been more cautious about the arguments. Mahmood told a New Statesman event at the Labour party conference that rejoining the EU would not be a “simple, straightforward thing” and there were “quite hard trade-offs”, such as eliminating trade friction without “some of the burdens that also brings”.
A number of Labour MPs with heavily pro-Brexit seats in the so-called red wall in the north and Midlands are also wary about reopening the arguments for free movement or rejoining the EU. Those include Jonathan Hinder, the MP for Pendle, who recently pressed the prime minister in parliament to rule out a return to free movement.
Concerns were raised on Sunday by Richard Walker, the Labour peer and executive chair of Iceland, who told Times Radio that restarting the debate would be a “dangerous precedent” and that opening the borders would not help the “one million young people that are out of work”.
Burnham’s comments drew an immediate response from the right of politics, with the Conservatives and Reform UK criticising the idea of reopening the debate. Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, said the idea of reopening free movement was “another example of Burnham’s foot-in-mouth syndrome”.
She posted on social media: “He hasn’t thought this through or the implications. Most people who voted for Brexit did so because they didn’t want free movement. Too many politicians have failed to understand the significance and impact of immigration on communities.
“We have had more than enough experience of what happens when politicians, including previous Conservative governments, promise control but fail to deliver it. The answer is to learn from those mistakes, not reopen free movement.”
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, called it a “total betrayal of Brexit Britain and his Makerfield pitch”. “He is also deluded to say immigration was different when we were members of the EU. We will fight this dishonesty,” he added.
Polling suggests voters in the UK are increasingly open to rejoining the EU or a single market arrangement involving free movement. The concept of free movement was that British and EU citizens could move freely within the bloc, which also shared a single market for goods and services.
During the Brexit referendum, the topic was hotly debated, with the leave campaign arguing that the UK would be able to take control of its borders if it voted to exit the EU. However, in the years that followed, net migration rose to a peak of about 900,000 in January 2020 under a new points-based system, up from 330,000 before the Brexit vote.
