Andy Burnham’s call for the nation to consider returning to free movement with the European Union has sparked a backlash among “Red Wall” Labour MPs.
Reopening the Brexit debate offers an “incomprehensible boost” to Reform UK, say MPs in the North of England who fear their seats are vulnerable to Nigel Farage’s party.
Both Cabinet ministers and Labour backbenchers appear split after the Prime Minister said last month that all options are on the table for close ties with the EU – including going “all the way” to rejoin the bloc.
Burnham said at the weekend that it was time for an “honest discussion” about whether to accept the EU’s freedom of movement. The principle would see people on the continent being able to work in the UK and vice versa.
“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],” the PM told The Sunday Times.
“Revolving-door migration where people would come and then go back is different,” Burnham added. “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.”
A mandate to seek a freedom of movement deal with the EU could be done without a referendum, should Labour put it in their next election manifesto, Burnham also revealed.
Housing Secretary Angela Rayner backed the idea. “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,” she told BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.
YouGov’s latest EU tracker, conducted in September, found 59 per cent of Britons would support rejoining, against 32 per cent opposed.
Pro-Europe campaigners Best for Britain recently shared polling with senior Labour figures in an effort to show that a commitment to rejoining could help win back voters who have switched to the Liberal Democrats, Greens, SNP and Plaid Cymru.
And a YouGov survey, which questioned more than 10,000 adults, suggested that including a manifesto commitment to rejoin would boost enthusiasm for Labour by seven per cent.
‘Incomprehensible boost to Reform’
Burnham repeated his desire to rejoin the EU during an interview with ITV’s GMB on Monday, but added: “I am not going to move ahead of the public. You have to make sure that the British public are the bosses here.”
But Reform UK’s leader said the idea of dropping immigration controls with the EU to bring back freedom of movement was a “total betrayal of Brexit Britain”.
Red Wall MPs, trying to hold off Reform in Brexit-voting areas, are worried about fuelling Farage’s arguments about immigration.
Burnham’s free movement comments were an “incomprehensible boost to Reform UK”, one red wall Labour MP told The i Paper.
Unease is wider than the red wall in the north and Midlands, the MP said. A lot of Labour MPs believe the Brexit debate “will be extremely divisive and reopen culture wars just when the right are in retreat”, they added.
Jonathan Hinder, MP for Pendle and Clitheroe, recently spoke in the Commons urging Burnham to rule out any return to freedom of movement.
There would have to be a referendum on such a big change, Hinder said in a post on X. “And when presented with a return to freedom of movement in a referendum, how would the country vote? It wouldn’t be close.”
Jonathan Brash, the Labour MP for Hartlepool, recently told The Telegraph said the party cannot keep “playing a sort of Brexit Hokey Cokey”, adding: “The British people made their decision.”
Jon Trickett, MP for Normanton and Hemsworth, writing for Politics Home, said reopening Brexit debate would “betray” Labour’s manifesto promises and “plunge the nation into the paralysing polarisation”.
Free movement ‘should be looked at afresh’
However, not all red wall MPs are opposed to much closer alignment with the EU.
Andy McDonald, MP for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East, told The i Paper that he was “glad” Burnham had raised the free movement issue.
“The UK would be so much better served if we had the ability to work more collaboratively with our European trading partners,” said McDonald.
“Freedom of movement can be part of that and it should be looked at afresh in the context of securing an improved and closer trading relationship with the EU.”
Pro-EU Labour MPs are hugely encouraged by Burnham’s comments.
Stella Creasy, the chair of the Labour Movement for Europe, said Burnham was right to start a “grown-up conversation about what EU freedom of movement actually means to our supply chains and for jobs for British citizens”.
Burnham has said he would not yet “jump to a firm position” on free movement, but explained that it would not be a red line in future talks with Brussels.
Burnham has promised to set out possibilities for the UK’s long-term relationship with the EU at a Brussels summit on 20 November – with rejoining likely to be an option.
Cabinet and backbenchers split
Cabinet members appear split on the Burnham’s push to reopen the debate about the possibility of reversing Brexit. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband and Defence Secretary Wes Streeting have spoken enthusiastically about seeking much closer ties with Europe.
But Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has been cautious about the idea of breaking Labour’s previous manifesto promises. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has said a return to the debate risked “paralysis”. One senior minister recently told The i Paper there was “no appetite” for rejoining the EU.
Labour should be bold enough to make full membership a “medium-term” goal, according to the left-wing Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) think tank.
Polling commissioned by the IPPR and Persuasion UK this month found that more than half (52 per cent) of voters want to rejoin the EU, compared with only 29 per cent who wanted to stay out.
Luke Tryl, polling expert at the More in Common research group, said British voters were now less concerned about free movement. Recent polling by More in Common found that 51 per cent said it would be “acceptable”.
However, Britain’s budget contributions to the EU and the “spectre” of having to join Euro are much less acceptable to voters, he added.