Andy Burnham is facing a divided Cabinet and warnings from Labour MPs against reinstating free movement of people after he opened the door to rejoining the EU.
The Prime Minister said it was time to re-examine options for moving closer to the EU because Brexit has done “more harm than good”, and that this should include looking at going “all the way” back into the bloc.
But his move put him at odds with some of his Cabinet colleagues, with one senior minister saying there was “no appetite” for rejoining the EU.
Labour MPs in Leave-voting seats, meanwhile, sounded caution over reinstating free movement of EU citizens to the UK – a precondition of membership, with one warning it would be a “massive problem” for their constituents.
“Nobody in Europe wants to start renegotiating treaties and neither do we,” the Cabinet minister said.
They said those colleagues in the Cabinet backing the UK to rejoin the bloc were not being “realistic”.
Several other ministers in Burnham’s top team are also understood to remain privately opposed to rejoining the EU amid fears it could reignite the Brexit wars that led to years of political stagnation and division after the 2016 referendum.
Cabinet ministers meanwhile criticised some of the other options Burnham is likely to put forward, including rejoining the single market or customs union but remaining out of the EU.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Emma Reynolds said the so-called Norway option, with the UK in the single market but outside the EU, was not viable for the UK as it would mean becoming a “rule-taker” from Brussels on financial services.
Speaking to The i Paper at a Labour conference fringe event hosted by ThinkLabour on Tuesday, the Treasury minister said: “Look, we’re obviously not Norway.”
She went on: “We’ve got a lot to learn from Norway, but I think it is recognised within the EU that we are a bigger economy. We have been a member as well. Obviously Norway has never been a member of the EU.”
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds criticised another option on Sunday, before the Prime Minister’s announcement, saying there would be little point in joining a customs union as it would mean becoming more of a rule-taker from Brussels in return for relatively little economic benefit, while threatening existing UK trade deals.
Reynolds also warned at a Politico fringe event that reopening the wider question of EU membership could create “a lot of uncertainty for business”, arguing the Government should instead focus on improving the UK’s existing trading relationship with Brussels.
Labour MPs in the Brexit-voting Red Wall of working-class seats in the North and Midlands meanwhile raised concerns about reinstating free movement, which would be a requirement for rejoining either the single market or the EU.
“I think my constituents would have a massive problem with it,” one said.
Another said free movement would only be sellable to their voters if it was accompanied by measures to stop the Channel small boats crisis, such as an EU asylum returns deal.
“Immigration for work for most people – except extreme people who would never vote Labour – is acceptable.
“It is all about the control narrative – does it give us control?”
However, a third Red Wall MP said opinion has “shifted significantly” in their seat and so they “don’t know” if free movement would be a red line.
Their voters could back a rejoin but it would “depend on the deal on the table”, the MP said.
Burnham insisted voters may now accept free movement, as EU citizens’ presence in the UK was more transient than the so-called “Boriswave” of post-Brexit mass immigration, which has led to people settling more permanently.
He told GB News: “One thing that I want to convey here is Brexit has changed the nature of immigration to this country, because in the past, when we were in the European Union, people can have their view about it, about whether it was good or bad.
“But what we had was a more revolving-door form of migration, where people would come here in their younger years. Many people did from Eastern Europe.
“They’d maybe spend a few years here in their mid to late 20s, and then go home and start a family, and that was a very common form of immigration.
“Now, immigration is more likely to be a permanent settlement, where people are coming on a visa to work here.”
The Prime Minister also suggested it would be easier to tackle the Channel crisis as an EU member, as Brexit meant the UK “lost access to the crucial immigration database held across Europe which tells you where people arrived and what countries they’ve been through”, so they could in theory be returned there after arriving on a small boat.
Nick Thomas-Symonds, the UK’s minister for EU Relations under Sir Keir Starmer and an architect of the more limited Brexit reset pursued by Labour, said Burnham was “right to open up a national debate on the next steps in our relationship with the EU, with all options on the table”.
He told The i Paper: “Boris Johnson’s trade deal with the EU caused thousands of businesses to stop trading across the Channel and led to mountains of red tape, costing jobs. This status quo is indefensible.”
David Henig, director of UK trade policy at the European Centre for Political Economy (ECIPE), said the options for moving closer to the EU are “fewer than it may appear” as a customs union would not bring free trade, while the single market would hit the City with Brussels regulations.
But he said a Swiss-style deal is possible with a much “deeper” trade relationship in return for free movement of workers, allowing EU citizens to move to the UK to seek or do jobs, but not claim benefits.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Burnham’s stance was “very good news” for both the UK and Europe, quipping: “Welcome back.”
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, speaking at a joint press conference with Macron in Madrid, said Brexit was a “huge loss” for the UK population and the EU project, and that Spain would “open its arms” to the UK if it decided to rejoin.
An EU spokesman said: “The UK is a close and valued partner of the European Union. It is for the UK Government to set out how it wishes to develop its relationship with the EU going forward. We remain open to engaging on the options it may put forward.”
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