Rayner backs Burnham over UK-EU free-movement debate

Angela Rayner backed Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s call to discuss UK-EU free movement on Oct. 25, The Guardian news report said, reviving a debate after UK net migration peaked at about 900,000 in January 2020.

That compares with 330,000 before the Brexit vote, The Guardian said. The issue matters because closer economic ties with the EU could reopen one of Brexit’s most politically sensitive trade-offs for Labour MPs in pro-Brexit northern and Midlands seats.

Burnham told the Sunday Times he wanted an “honest discussion” about free movement and indicated that excluding it should no longer be a firm condition in talks with the EU. “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],” he said.

Rayner, the housing secretary, told Sky News that Burnham’s position was “just pragmatism”. She said: “It’s about what is the best deal for Britain and that’s what we are asking the public to look at. The prime minister is clear that you can’t take anything off the table when you’re having a conversation.”

Stella Creasy, a Labour MP who chairs the Labour Movement for Europe, supported reopening the issue. She said Britain was “long overdue for a grownup conversation about what EU freedom of movement actually means to our supply chains and for jobs for British citizens”.

The Guardian said several senior cabinet ministers favour a closer relationship with the EU to support growth, potentially including re-entry to the single market and acceptance of free movement. It identified Ed Miliband, the foreign secretary, as among those open to restarting the discussion.

Free movement allowed British and EU citizens to move across the bloc, which also operated a single market for goods and services. During the Brexit referendum, the leave campaign argued that departure would allow the UK to regain control of its borders.

The position is contested inside Labour. Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, told a New Statesman event at Labour’s party conference that rejoining the EU would not be a “simple, straightforward thing” and involved “quite hard trade-offs”, including the balance between reducing trade friction and accepting associated obligations.

Jonathan Hinder, the Labour MP for Pendle, recently pressed Burnham in parliament to rule out a return to free movement, according to The Guardian. Richard Walker, a Labour peer and executive chair of Iceland, told Times Radio that reopening the question would set a “dangerous precedent” and that open borders would not help the “one million young people that are out of work”.

The Conservatives and Reform UK also criticised Burnham’s comments. Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, wrote on social media that most Brexit voters opposed free movement and said politicians should “learn from those mistakes, not reopen free movement”. Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, called the idea a “total betrayal of Brexit Britain and his Makerfield pitch”.

The Guardian said polling suggests UK voters are becoming more open to rejoining the EU or a single-market arrangement that includes free movement, though the supplied report did not provide figures.

Source: news report, The Guardian, Oct. 25