Burnham in retreat over EU freedom of movement

Andy Burnham has rowed back on comments he made opening the door to signing up to EU freedom of movement . At the weekend, the Prime Minister said Britain needed to have an “evidence-based debate” about the issue as he seeks to reset its relationship with Brussels. However, in a briefing for journalists on Monday, the Prime Minister’s official deputy spokesman said: “The Prime Minister isn’t proposing a return to freedom of movement or any option. “He’s saying it’s time to discuss what kind of long-term relationship with Europe is best for Britain, and he is referring to the types of areas that that relationship or agreement should cover.” The spokesman said Mr Burnham was “not leaning either way” on EU membership, adding that the British public would have the final decision. It is understood that No 10 has kept the door open to rejoining the EU without a referendum, despite the high political risk associated with such a move. Instead, a return to full membership could follow a Labour victory at the next general election – which some expect as soon as next spring – if it was included in its manifesto. On Monday morning, Mr Burnham was asked by a reporter whether he would allow the UK to return to freedom of movement without a referendum. The Prime Minister replied: “No, and I wasn’t saying that – [I will] never move ahead of the British public when it comes to Brexit .” Hours later Downing Street refused to repeat that assurance and would not state that rejoining the EU or single market would necessarily be subject to a vote. Mr Burnham has made the debate around whether Britain should rejoin the EU a focus of his first 100 days in Downing Street. At Labour’s annual party conference in Liverpool last month, he declared that Brexit “has done more harm than good” and pledged to set out a range of options for the future of the UK-EU relationship, including full membership. Mr Burnham told The Sunday Times last weekend that while freedom of movement “had very significant challenges”, it “perhaps wasn’t as difficult” as the types of migration that had followed since Britain left the EU in 2020. “Revolving door migration where people would come and then go back is different,” he said. “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.” Appearing on Good Morning Britain on Monday, Mr Burnham was challenged on whether he would accept a return to freedom of movement, which would allow EU citizens to move to the UK and vice versa. He replied: “I didn’t say that in the discussion. What I said is we need to be honest about how it’s changed things in the last decade. “I think we need to be honest about these things, and not say we can’t even have a conversation about them.” At a press conference on Monday afternoon, Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, said: “I would say to the Prime Minister, as the Brussels summit of November 20 gets ever closer, that he has no mandate whatsoever to agree anything in that summit. “It would not only be a betrayal of the greatest democratic exercise in the history of this country, but also a betrayal of what he promised the voters of Makerfield just a few short months ago. “None of this legitimately can be done, from a democratic perspective, without a general election – I suspect that [an] election is coming.” Mr Burnham has made no secret of his desire to see Britain rejoin the EU in his lifetime. Before a major summit with the EU next month, he said that he was not going to “jump to a firm position” on free movement. However, he has ruled out joining the euro or the Schengen area, positions which could complicate the push for a return to full membership. Mr Burnham’s Cabinet is already split on the issue of rejoining the EU, which Wes Streeting, the Defence Secretary, has publicly supported. However, Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, and Jonathan Reynolds, the Business Secretary, have both rejected a return to the Brexit wars, which dominated the second half of the 2010s after the 2016 referendum and years of protracted talks. Splits also exist on the Labour back benches. The Labour Movement for Europe, which has the support of dozens of MPs, has said that Britain should eventually rejoin. But Labour MPs in the Red Wall – the party’s traditional heartlands in the North and Midlands, which backed Brexit in 2016 and lent their votes to the Tories in 2019 – have warned that Mr Burnham risked handing their seats to Reform UK should he pursue a rejoin agenda. It is not the first time the Prime Minister has been forced to row back on an issue surrounding Brexit. Earlier this month, Mr Burnham said it was important to get “on the record” that Russia had interfered in the referendum during an appearance on the Rest is Politics podcast. After Mr Burnham was accused of having “implied that the referendum result was illegitimate because of Russian interference”, he was forced to tell the Commons he had “always respected” the outcome of the Brexit vote.