Prime Minister Andy Burnham has told the Sunday Times he welcomes an "honest discussion" about free movement between the UK and the European Union, saying migration patterns have shifted since the 2016 Brexit referendum. He raised the prospect that a new relationship with Brussels could include full EU membership or single market membership, both requiring free movement of people.
Burnham framed the debate as one about changed circumstances. He said revolving door migration, where EU citizens moved temporarily to the UK then returned home, differs from current patterns. "The balance of migration has changed, hasn't it, since then?" he told the publication. "I think we've just got to have an honest discussion about those things."
He stopped short of endorsing free movement outright. Burnham stressed he could not "see myself ever recommending anything that would involve joining the euro or Schengen," the passport-free travel zone. He also noted that any such shift would require a general election mandate, with the next election due by 2029. Labour's 2024 manifesto explicitly ruled out free movement, single market membership and customs union membership.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner defended the comments on the BBC, saying the government wanted to "be pragmatic to get the best deal for Britain" and that nothing was "off the table" in EU negotiations. She called for "an honest conversation about the facts of what the trade-offs are."
The remarks come ahead of an EU summit on 20 November where Burnham plans to pitch options for resetting UK-EU relations.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said Burnham "hasn't thought this through" and called the suggestion "yet another example of Burnham's foot in mouth syndrome." She noted that most Brexit voters opposed free movement. Conservative MP Jeremy Hunt, who backed Remain in 2016, warned that rehashing the Brexit debate was "incredibly divisive" and urged the government to make the current deal work instead.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper countered that free movement would aid growth and pushed for rejoining the single market. Reform UK's Robert Jenrick dismissed the idea as "completely mad," arguing mass migration had harmed working people's wages.