British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he wants a discussion about returning to the European Union’s freedom of movement rules for workers, a key issue in the 2016 Brexit referendum which led to Britain leaving the bloc.
Building on previous comments about the need to rethink ties with Brussels, Mr.
Burnham told the Sunday Times that the influx of EU workers into Britain before Brexit had posed very significant challenges. “But, at the same time, it was a type of immigration that perhaps wasn’t as difficult (as now),” he said.
In September, two months after replacing Keir Starmer as Labour Party leader and prime minister, Mr. In his interview with the Sunday Times , conducted on October 19, Mr. Former Conservative finance minister Jeremy Hunt, who campaigned to stay in the EU in 2016, said it would be a mistake to reopen one of the fundamental debates of the referendum and he said relaxing immigration rules would hurt people in Britain.
Burnham said Britain should consider options for its relationship with the EU, including possibly rejoining the bloc one day. Burnham said the issue of freedom of movement could be considered as part of a broader reset of Britain’s relationship with the EU, including on data sharing and migration. “You’ve got to see it in the round, rather than just looking at freedom of movement on its own,” he said. He said he could not imagine recommending that Britain adopt the euro currency or the EU’s border-free travel arrangements. “I think it will be a hammer blow to getting people off welfare and into work,” he told Sky News.
He had previously backed the pledges of Starmer’s government which included no return to freedom of movement which Brussels sets as a condition for being part of the bloc’s single market.
