Angela Rayner Ties Herself In Knots Insisting Burnham Is Not Re-Running Brexit Debate

Angela Rayer has ended up tying herself in knots by trying to insist Andy Burnham is not re-running the Brexit debate. It comes after the prime minister told The Sunday Times that he is open to Britain readopting the EU’s free movement rules ahead of the UK-EU summit next month. He said the nature of immigration into the UK is “different” since Brexit, with more foreigners moving to stay in Britain permanently instead of returning to their home countries.

Opposition to freedom of movement – which allowed any EU citizen to move to the UK and vice versa – was at the heart of the pro-Leave campaign. However, the prime minister told Makerfield voters he would not “re-run” arguments from 2016 when he campaigning to be their MP earlier this year. The constituency voted to leave the EU by a significant margin but elected Burnham, who campaigned to Remain, to represent them in June. Yet housing and communities secretary Rayner insisted that Burnham had not U-turned on this approach despite his recent comments.

Speaking to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg , the cabinet minister insisted Burnham has not pivoted now he’s in No.10. “I think it’s exactly what he said a few months ago,” she said. “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 [with the EU] coming up and the prime minister is looking at a 10-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.”

She said Burnham wants to have an “honest conversation” about how Britain can “get the best deal going forward for the next decade”. Asked if that includes freedom of movement, Ranyer said: “He’s saying we can’t rule things out at the moment. “We can’t re-run what happened in 2016 but it’s about what relationship we have going forward.” Kuenssberg then pointed to the 2024 Labour manifesto when the party said there would be no freedom of movement, adding: “He’s breaking that promise isn’t he?”

“No he isn’t because he’s been clear that this parliament, that manifesto, we are clear we are not reopening the debate,” Rayner replied. “He’s literally just re-opened that debate,” the journalist cut in. “We go forward into the future,” Rayner replied. “We can’t go backwards.” She added: “What I want is we have an honest conversation about what the trade-offs are to get the best deal going forward. “A lot of those facts didn’t actually get the airtime.”

She also refused to say if she wanted to see freedom of movement, simply suggesting it should be on the table in the negotiations. Reform UK’s leader Nigel Farage slammed Burnham’s proposal, saying: “This is a total betrayal of Brexit Britain and Burnham’s Makerfield pitch. “He is also deluded to say immigration was different when we were members of the EU. We will fight this dishonesty.” Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy.

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