Andy Burnham has called for an “honest discussion” on returning to the European Union’s free movement, but has ruled out recommending that Britain join the euro or Schengen area.
The Prime Minister of Great Britain, Andy Burnham, has raised the possibility of Britain readopting the European Union’s free movement rules, The Times reports.
Burnham’s stance was backed by housing secretary Angela Rayner. She told Sky News that it was “just pragmatism” and added: “It’s about what is the best deal for Britain and that’s what we are asking the public to look at.”
Burnham said the nature of immigration into the UK had been “different” since Brexit, with more foreigners moving permanently rather than returning to their home countries.
Considering trade-offs
Rayner told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “It’s 10 years on since we left the European Union. We can’t go backwards. That’s not a possibility for us. We have to go forwards, and therefore you have to look at what that future relationship will look like.”
She added: “I would like us to have an honest conversation about what the trade-offs could be and then put that to the people at a general election.”
Rayner said that the prime minister is clear that “you can’t take anything off the table when you’re having a conversation.”
Burnham’s comments were made in one of a series of interviews the prime minister gave to The Sunday Times during his first 100 days in office.
“Revolving door migration”
According to The Times, the part of the 2016 Brexit referendum concerning free movement, which let any EU citizen move to the UK, was debated heavily, and opposition to it was seen as a key reason why the country voted to leave the bloc.
Burnham said: “Freedom of movement had very significant challenges associated with it, and I spoke about them in my previous time in parliament. But, at the same time, 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.”
Annual net migration before the 2016 vote rose to 330,000 people, but after Britain left the EU in January 2020, the number increased to a record high of more than 900,000. During the 1990s, it had remained close to zero for EU citizens.
The rise of the "Boriswave"
When Britain was in the bloc, free movement meant that every EU citizen could move to, live and work in the UK, while non-EU citizens generally needed jobs with significant salary requirements.
After Brexit, both EU and non-EU migrants had to use the UK’s new points-based system, which was based largely on work requirements. The rules were initially relatively permissive, hence the surge in net migration referred to as the “Boriswave” after then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Immigration requirements have since then become significantly stricter.
Asked about his argument on free movement, Burnham said: “It was generally younger people, not always, but spending a few years, then going back. And obviously the ease of that worked for British people as well.”
The EU’s four freedoms
The prime minister is considering different “options” for the UK to get closer to the EU, which he announced at the Labour Party conference last month, but Burnham has not yet decided exactly how.
He has mentioned several options, such as rejoining the EU, the single market or the customs union, or simply keeping the status quo.
EU membership and full participation in the single market have historically involved accepting free movement, one of the bloc’s founding “four freedoms.”
The European single market guarantees the free movement of goods, capital, services, and people, and it aims to create a borderless economic area “where individuals and businesses can operate freely, fostering economic growth and benefiting consumers through increased choice and lower prices.”
The single market includes the 27 EU Member States, along with Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein through the European Economic Area (EEA).
According to the European Commission, the single market has fuelled economic growth and improved the everyday life of European consumers and businesses.
Access to EU cooperation
The prime minister said he was not going to “jump to a firm position” on free movement but indicated that continued exclusion from the arrangements was open to discussion.
Burnham said: “I can’t see myself ever recommending anything that would involve joining the euro or Schengen [area]. No, I just don’t think they would ever be things that I would recommend,” The Times reports.
Burnham also raised other impacts from leaving the bloc: “Consider what we’ve lost, which was the ability to be part of Eurodac and all the data collaboration around migration. You’ve got to see it in the round, rather than just looking at freedom of movement on its own.”
Control of migration
When the UK left the bloc, it lost access to Eurodac, which is the EU’s biometric database supporting the management of asylum claims and border control.
Burnham also said that a new referendum would be needed to rejoin the EU, but not necessarily for joining the single market or the customs union.
The prime minister said he wanted to be “honest” with the British public as he considers different EU options: “I am positive about closer ties with Europe, and I’m not hiding that. I think it will add to British GDP. I think it will give us stronger control of migration. I want to make those arguments.”
Labour’s manifesto
Burnham has promised to stick to Sir Keir Starmer’s policies for the duration of this parliament, which include no return to freedom of movement and no return to the single market or customs union. However, he signalled this weekend that a return to freedom of movement could feature in Labour’s manifesto for the next general election, due by 2029, The Guardian reports.
A Downing Street spokesperson elaborated on Burnham’s recent comments: “He is saying that it’s time for us 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 agreement and long-term future could cover,” according to The Guardian.
“He is crucially not leaning either way, and that will be for the British public to decide,” she said, with Downing Street insisting that the government’s current focus is on achieving new deals in areas such as food and youth mobility at the summit.
UK-EU summit in November
Burnham is due to meet EU chiefs, including Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, for a summit in Brussels on 20 November, The Times reports.
UK Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told the BBC that British and European officials will discuss future options for the UK’s relationship with the EU ahead of the summit.
According to The Guardian, both sides are hoping to agree on food and drink standards, as part of a sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement, as well as progress on the Made in Europe scheme: UK negotiators are hoping to secure a carve-out from the scheme, which is designed to protect industries from unfair Chinese competition.
Future negotiations
Reynolds said no “assumptions” had been made about what the UK’s future relationship with Brussels could look like, only that Burnham would be frank with the British people about what the trade-offs are.
Speaking to the BBC, Reynolds also highlighted that the prime minister has said that the UK faces “a series of policy changes on the European side that will affect us.”
“We need to get as little uncertainty as possible, we need to have a way to resolve what our long-term relationship will be, and he [Burnham] is going to set that out after the summit.”