UK: Prime Minister Andy Burnham calls for an 'honest discussion' on EU free movement; Rayner backs him, Badenoch and Farage object

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said Britain should have an “honest discussion” about free movement with the European Union, indicating that ruling it out would no longer be a red line in talks on future relations with the bloc, according to an interview published by the Sunday Times on 25 October, AFP and The Guardian reported.

“Freedom of movement had very significant challenges associated with it,” Burnham said, but added that “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.”

Burnham, in office since July, has committed to the Labour Party’s 2024 election manifesto, which ruled out a return to free movement, the single market or a customs union, AFP reported. He told the newspaper he “can’t see myself ever recommending anything that would involve joining” the euro or the Schengen area. He has promised to set out options for closer ties around a UK-EU summit in Brussels on 20 November, where both sides hope to agree deals on food and drink, youth mobility and emissions trading.

Housing Secretary Angela Rayner told Sky News the approach was “just pragmatism”, adding: “You can’t take anything off the table when you’re having a conversation.” Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said closer ties would involve “quite hard trade-offs”, The Guardian reported.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said Burnham “hasn’t thought this through or the implications” and that most people who voted for Brexit “didn’t want free movement”. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage called the remarks a “total betrayal of Brexit Britain”.

See also: UK: Burnham and Badenoch clash over Jackdaw gas field and borrowing at PMQs.