Farage brands Burnham free movement push a total Brexit betrayal

Nigel Farage has accused Andy Burnham of a total betrayal of Brexit Britain after the Prime Minister opened the door to free movement with the European Union.

Opposition to the EU’s freedom of movement, which let any EU citizen move and work in Britain, sat at the heart of the 2016 referendum. Labour’s election manifesto insisted the UK would honour that result and stay out of the bloc. Yet Mr Burnham has now called for an honest discussion over re-establishing the old migration system.

Writing on social media, the Reform UK leader said: “This is a total betrayal of Brexit Britain and his Makerfield pitch. He is also deluded to say immigration was different when we were members of the EU. We will fight this dishonesty.”

Mr Burnham admitted freedom of movement had very significant challenges associated with it, but claimed migration has changed without it. He told The Times the nature of immigration had been different since Brexit and added: “Revolving door migration, where people would come and then go back, is different. I think we’ve just got to have an honest discussion about those things.”

Britain voted to take back control of its borders. Any move that softens that choice, dressed up as a rounded chat, hands the keys back to Brussels and ignores what people decided. Sovereignty is not a temporary arrangement to be bargained away when it suits.

The Prime Minister explained that his late father, Roy, used EU rules in the 1990s to work in Germany installing mobile phone infrastructure. He said people have forgotten that travel for work mattered in the Eighties and Nineties, and argued for a rounded discussion while still noting the negatives of free movement.

Closer EU ties now on the table

Mr Burnham is considering different options to bring the UK closer to the EU, including joining the single market, the customs union, keeping the current status quo, or rejoining the bloc entirely. The long-delayed EU-UK summit is set for November 20 in Brussels, covering defence and security partnership, energy, agrifood rules, climate, people-to-people contacts, and migration and law enforcement.

After Brexit, net migration into the UK spiked, largely through the so-called Boriswave that expanded visa routes, particularly for health and social care workers. Hundreds of thousands entered via the points-based system. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has sought to extend the minimum period for indefinite leave to remain from five years to 15, though that plan has already stirred internal Labour trouble.

Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh declined seven times in a Sky interview to back the longer ILR wait, calling it awkward because she had promised never to lie, before later stating full support for the Home Secretary and the Government’s position on migration reform. GB News has reported the row as Burnham keeps the door open to freer movement while voters who backed Brexit watch the ground shift again.

Farage and Reform UK will keep pressing the point. The fight is over whether Britain runs its own borders or slides back toward the open arrangements the country rejected.

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Original source: GB News

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