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The Prime Minister says he would welcome an “honest discussion” about the prospect of free movement between Britain and the European Union.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, Andy Burnham said a new relationship with Brussels could include full EU membership or joining the single market, which would require free movement.
Asked about Burnham’s comments, Angela Rayner told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg “you can’t take anything off the table”, adding that the prime minister said “we have to be pragmatic to get the best deal for Britain and he wants to have the conversation.”
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch responded that the prime minister had “not considered that”, while Reform UK’s Robert Jenrick dismissed the idea as “crazy”.
Migration dominated debate during the 2016 Brexit campaign, with the Leave campaign raising issues about rules allowing all EU citizens to move to the UK.
Burnham previously committed to Labour’s 2024 election manifesto, which ruled out a return to free movement, membership of the single market or a customs union.
He said any change would require a mandate in the general election, until 2029.
“I think you need to have a very factual, fairly evidence-based debate about this,” he told the Sunday Times, externaladding that he believed the nature of migration had changed from the revolving door movement of young people.
“Rotendur migration where people come and then go back is different,” he said. “The balance of migration has changed since then, hasn’t it? I think we just need to have an honest discussion about those things.”
He stressed, however: “I can never see myself recommending anything that joins the Euro or Schengen.”
The Schengen Agreement allows passport-free travel through EU countries. Britain was able to keep the pound when it was an EU member, but the bloc pressured new members to adopt the euro.
His comments were made ahead of the EU summit in Brussels on November 20, where the prime minister is expected to present options for resetting relations with the bloc.
On Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Rayner said that she wants to see the best possible deal with the European Union, which could also include concessions.
“What the Prime Minister is saying now, and what I want, is that we have an honest conversation about the facts of what the negotiations are to get the best deal for Britain going forward,” she said.
“The frustration for me in the previous debate we had when we had the referendum is that a lot of those facts didn’t get air time… So I would like us to have an honest conversation about what the negotiations could be and then put that to the people in the general election.”
Writing on X, Badenoch dismisses it as “yet another example of Burnham’s foot in mouth syndrome”.
She added: “Most people who voted for Brexit did so because they did not want free movement. Too many politicians failed to understand the significance and impact of immigration on communities.”
But Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper told Kuenssberg she believed allowing freedom of movement was “a really good thing for growth” and pushed for Britain to rejoin the single market, the customs union and also be involved in the bloc’s defense pact.
Britain currently has “the worst of both worlds” on immigration, she said, because it was excluded from the EU’s “new asylum pact with biometric data” which could be used to “tackle the small boat crisis”.
Reform UK economics spokesman Robert Jenrick told Kuenssberg that he never believed freedom of movement was “a good thing”, despite supporting the Remain position before the 2016 referendum when he was a Conservative MP.
“I think it’s completely crazy, the idea that this country needs more immigration,” he said, claiming the data showed mass migration “has been a disaster for working people, for the British”.
“The last thing they want is for their wages to be undercut by a load of low-wage, low-skilled migrants from abroad,” he added.
