Asked in the Caribbean if he thought the people of Makerfield support freedom of movement, Burnham said:
“I have not proposed freedom of movement coming back. I do believe that we should have an honest discussion with people about how immigration has changed since the Brexit vote because the shorter term migration of people coming from Europe and then going back has been replaced with long term settlement in bigger numbers and that was the Boris wave I mentioned a moment ago. I feel it has led to a more illegal migration because we can’t share data anymore.
And you know, I noticed in the middle of the by election that public opinion had changed in the Makerfield constituency over those 10 years. I think public opinion has changed nationally. But I want to be really clear on this issue. I will not run ahead of public opinion. The public need to be the boss when it comes to whatever happens with Brexit.”
More in Common polling has found that 51% of Brits say restoring freedom of movement an acceptable price for rejoining the EU, which drops down to only 31% when it is accurately called “removing limits on immigration”. In that case the share who find it unacceptable nearly doubles from 23% to 45%. Poisoned chalice…
Christine Lagarde is stepping down as President of the European Central Bank in February next year, nine months before her term was due to end in October. The early exit gives EU leaders time to install a successor before next year’s French presidential election. Le Pen is in the lead…
Former Dutch and Spanish central bank governors Klaas Knot and Pablo Hernández de Cos are the frontrunners to replace her, while Lagarde is widely tipped for the World Economic Forum. She leaves in the middle of a rate-hiking cycle. The ECB is trying to stop the Iran war oil shock feeding through into wider prices while bond yields in debt-laden France skyrocket…
Burnham wants to rejoin the EU. Here are all the measures in the Budget that are only possible because of Britain’s position outside the EU:
After Burnham attacked the Brexit deal at PMQs, Badenoch retorted: “He should be thanking us.” Quite…
PMQs…
As Burnham calls for an “honest discussion” about a return to freedom of movement with the EU, the EU scheme meant to wind down after Brexit is still waving in thousands of people from outside Europe. Is anyone checking the door?
Some 6,709 non-Europeans got visas through the EU Settlement Scheme in 2025, almost five years after the June 2021 deadline. That includes 1,124 Indian nationals, 855 Somalis and 791 Pakistanis. Over the three years to December 2025 there were 78,785 applications from non-Europeans, with 33,658 granted…
Virtually all of them came through the EUSS ‘Family Permit’ – spouses, ‘durable partners’, dependent children, and parents of EU citizens here. So long as they can show the relationship started before Brexit, there is no cut-off at all. A BBC investigation found 365 sham marriages used to game the scheme between March 2018 and September 2021. One Ghanaian woman was allowed to stay despite not turning up to her own ‘wedding’…
DWP figures from February show 9.2% of Universal Credit claimants have EUSS settled status. The Home Office claims it has “no evidence” of abuse and says the Withdrawal Agreement legally obliges it to keep taking late applications. 365 sham marriages not enough evidence…
Burnham now says he will “never move ahead of the British public when it comes to Brexit”. How much worse will it get with full Freedom of Movement?
This particular receipt is from 18 May this year. You don’t have to go back far…
“My view is that Brexit has been damaging. But I also believe the last thing we should do right now is rerun those arguments.
Britain will be stuck in a permanent rut if we’re constantly arguing and people are pulling away from each other.
Surely it is time to bring people back together, to focus on what we’ve got in common and to get the growth coming to all places.
That is what we need in this moment, and it’s really important that, whatever comes out of this by-election, there’s a more unifying feeling about the change we need to work towards.
I am not proposing that the UK considers rejoining the EU.
I respect the decision that was made at the referendum, and it would undermine everything I’ve said about strengthening democracy if we don’t respect that vote.”
Words, eh?
Krishnan Guru-Murthy asked John Healey: “Just finally, I mean Andy Burnham has been very clear he wants Britain back in the European Union in his lifetime. Do you?”
The Chancellor replied: “I’m older than Andy Burnham. I don’t expect to see that.”