Ministers back PM Burnham's call to debate free movement as red wall Labour MPs warn of Reform risk

In an interview with the Sunday Times, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said the UK should have an "honest discussion" about freedom of movement with Europe, and made clear that staying out of it would no longer be a red line in talks with the EU. The remarks have won backing from senior cabinet colleagues. They have also opened a possible rift with Labour MPs in Brexit-voting "red wall" seats, who fear for their majorities.

Burnham also set out how he sees the constitutional route. In his view, rejoining the single market and accepting free movement could be done without another referendum, provided Labour put it in its manifesto. Fully rejoining the EU, he said, would need another in-out vote. He acknowledged that free movement had posed significant challenges, a point he said he made during his earlier time in parliament. But he argued that the balance of migration has changed since then, and that the older pattern of people coming and then going home was different from what the country sees now.

Angela Rayner, the housing secretary, told the BBC she would like an honest conversation about the trade-offs, to be put to voters at a general election. Stella Creasy, the Walthamstow MP who chairs the Labour Movement for Europe, said the country was long overdue a grownup conversation on what EU freedom of movement means. Ed Miliband, the foreign secretary, is among those in favour of reopening the discussion. A number of senior ministers want a much closer EU relationship to lift growth, which could mean returning to the single market and accepting free movement. One senior minister called the move brave given how divisive the issue was in the Brexit years, and said timing was the question: Theresa May, Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer had all tried to get as close as possible without free movement, and public opinion now allows the case to be made for the single market and free movement without a full rejoin.

Not everyone is persuaded. Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, told a New Statesman event at September's Labour conference that rejoining the EU would not be simple and carried hard trade-offs, such as removing trade friction without taking on some of the burdens that come with it. Jonathan Hinder, the MP for Pendle, recently pressed the prime minister in parliament to rule out a return to free movement. One red wall MP said debating it was right, but that colleagues in the north-east, especially in coastal areas, were raising serious concerns, adding that Burnham may have to work out whether he can win without them, "which is brutal but true." Another MP from a Brexit-voting area said it would undoubtedly put seats at risk to Reform, though Burnham argues from strength after lifting Labour's poll ratings in recent weeks. Richard Walker, the Labour peer and executive chair of Iceland, told Times Radio it would set a "dangerous precedent" and would not help the 1 million young people out of work.

The opposition reaction was swift. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch described it as another example of Burnham's "foot-in-mouth syndrome". Reform UK's Nigel Farage called it a total betrayal of Brexit Britain and of Burnham's Makerfield pitch, and said he was deluded to claim immigration was different when Britain was an EU member.

Labour's manifesto pledges no return to free movement or the single market, yet Burnham signalled it could still be discussed at next month's EU summit. His conference speech last month had already started the argument about rejoining as one route; his latest comments suggest he favours the option that avoids a referendum. Polling suggests voters are increasingly open to rejoining or to a single-market deal involving free movement. Luke Tryl of the More in Common thinktank said people tend to be less concerned about free movement after years of high non-EU migration, but would be more exercised by EU budget contributions or joining the euro. Net migration peaked at 944,000 in the year to March 2023 under the points-based system, up from 330,000 before the Brexit vote.

Business groups welcomed the move. The British Chambers of Commerce urged the Treasury to analyse the economic options for different EU-UK relationships; its trade policy head, William Bain, said the common understanding strategy agreed by Starmer in May 2025 was approaching the ceiling of what can be achieved. The OBR has estimated that Brexit trade barriers and the end of free movement cost about 4% of UK output over the long term.

This week's budget is expected to underline those costs. The Resolution Foundation says a 300,000 fall in migration over five years would cut tax revenues by £4.7bn in 2029-30, and the IFS estimates lower net migration would trim chancellor John Healey's headroom by £1bn to £5bn by 2031-32. Watch whether the issue reaches next month's EU summit, and whether it makes its way into Labour's manifesto.