Burnham Calls for Evidence-Based Debate on Free Movement
Prime Minister Andy Burnham says Britain should have an evidence-based discussion about a possible return to free movement with the European Union. The idea…
As Britain weighs its future relationship with Brussels, Prime Minister Andy Burnham says the public should have an evidence-based discussion about free movement. His comments reopen a politically charged question ahead of a summit with EU chiefs in Brussels on November 20.
Burnham told the Sunday Times that the debate should consider the changes in migration and the effects of ending free movement, including reduced access to European migration data. Any fundamental shift is likely to wait until after a general election because Labour’s 2024 manifesto ruled out restoring free movement, joining the single market or entering a customs union.
“I think you have to have a very factual, quite evidence-based debate about this,” Burnham said.
The prime minister has discussed several possible arrangements with the EU, including closer economic ties and a return to full membership. Joining the single market would require accepting free movement, while the options would involve agreeing to some EU rules.
For people in Britain, the debate concerns both migration controls and access to cooperation with European authorities. Burnham said the end of free movement had also meant losing access to Eurodac and other data collaboration on migration. Eurodac is the EU biometric database used to assist border control and asylum-claim management, according to the source report.
Manifesto commitments constrain immediate change
Burnham has previously committed to Labour’s manifesto red lines. That makes a near-term change difficult, even as he says he plans to use the November summit to set out options for the public.
The political dispute is already clear. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage called Burnham’s position a “total betrayal” of voters who supported Brexit, including people in Burnham’s Makerfield constituency. Farage said his party would oppose what he described as dishonesty over the difference between past and current migration.
Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp also rejected a return to free movement. He said it would mean handing back control of Britain’s borders and allowing uncontrolled migration from across Europe. “The British people voted to end free movement, and there can be no return to it,” Philp said.
Burnham acknowledged that free movement had brought significant challenges. He argued, however, that migration during Britain’s EU membership often involved younger people spending a few years in another country before returning, and said the arrangement also made it easier for Britons to live in Europe.
Migration was a dominant issue in the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign. Net migration stood at 335,000 in the 12 months to June 2016, according to the Office for National Statistics. It later reached 944,000 in the year to March 2023, then fell to 171,000 last year, the Guardian reported.
Burnham has ruled out recommending that Britain join the Schengen Area or replace the pound with the euro. The summit will instead give him an opportunity to discuss other possible forms of closer cooperation with EU leaders on November 20.
Source: theguardian.com
