UK PM Burnham says he wants to discuss a return to EU freedom of movement

Burnham says Britain should have an ‘honest discussion’ about how immigration to the UK has changed since Brexit.

Al JazeeraAl Jazeera Staff2026-10-25 12:38查看原文 ↗

Burnham says Britain should have an ‘honest discussion’ about how immigration to the UK has changed since Brexit.

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has previously said Brexit had done 'more harm than good' and called for Britain to consider its 'long-term relationship' with the EU [File: Kin Cheung/Reuters]

Prime Minister Andy Burnham says he wants to discuss Britain returning to the European Union’s freedom of movement rules for workers, a key issue in the 2016 Brexit referendum which led to the United Kingdom leaving the bloc.

Addressing the need to rethink ties with Brussels, ⁠Burnham told The Sunday Times newspaper that the influx of EU workers into Britain before Brexit had posed significant challenges.

list 1 of 4 UK PM Andy Burnham says it is ‘clear’ Russia interfered in 2016 Brexit vote

list 2 of 4 UK PM Andy Burnham vows to renegotiate post-Brexit trade deal with EU

list 3 of 4 ‘Block, blunt, break’: What’s in NATO’s new Russia war plan?

list 4 of 4 Three months of PM Andy Burnham: Can he sustain the ‘hope vibe’?

“But, at the same time, it was a type of immigration that perhaps wasn’t as difficult [as now],” he said in a report released on Sunday.

“Revolving door migration where people would come and then go back is different. The balance of migration has changed, hasn’t it, ‌since then? I think we’ve just got to have an honest discussion about those things,” he said.

The issue of immigration was a key factor in the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign that ended with Britons narrowly voting to leave the EU.

A decade later, Burnham, who has even touted the possibility of Britain applying to rejoin the EU one day, said the country should have an “honest discussion” about how immigration to Britain has changed since Brexit.

Long-term net migration to the UK nearly halved ⁠in 2025 , according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), falling to 171,000 in 2025 from 331,000 a year earlier. This drop had not been seen since before the post-Brexit immigration system was introduced, as tougher government measures have restricted arrivals.

In his October 19 interview with The Sunday Times, Burnham said the issue of freedom of movement could be considered as part of a broader reset of the UK’s relationship with the EU, including on data sharing and migration.

“Consider what we’ve lost, which was the ability to be part of Eurodac and all the data collaboration around migration. You’ve got to see it in the round, rather than just looking at freedom of movement on its own,” he told The Sunday Times.

Nigel Farage, leader of the anti-immigration Reform UK party, called Burnham’s comments on free movement a “total betrayal of Brexit Britain”.

In his speech to the Labour Party conference last month, Burnham said Brexit had done “more harm than good” and called for Britain to consider its “long-term relationship” with the EU.

The prime minister, who is trying to find ways to ⁠speed up the UK economy, is due to meet top EU officials for ⁠a summit on November 20.

伯纳姆表示，英国应该就脱欧后英国移民情况的变化进行“坦诚的讨论”。

英国首相安迪·伯纳姆此前曾表示，英国脱欧“弊大于利”，并呼吁英国考虑与欧盟的“长期关系”。[图片：Kin Cheung/路透社]

英国首相安迪·伯纳姆表示，他希望讨论英国回归欧盟劳动力自由流动规则的问题，这是2016年英国脱欧公投的关键议题，最终导致英国脱离欧盟。

伯纳姆在接受《星期日泰晤士报》采访时谈到需要重新思考与布鲁塞尔的关系，他表示，在英国脱欧之前，欧盟工人涌入英国带来了重大挑战。

英国首相安迪·伯纳姆表示，俄罗斯干预2016年英国脱欧公投“显而易见”。（共4条，此为第1条）

英国首相安迪·伯纳姆誓言将与欧盟重新谈判脱欧后的贸易协议（共4条，此为第2条）

列表 3/4 “封锁、钝化、突破”：北约新的对俄战争计划包含哪些内容？

列表 4（共 4 项）安迪·伯纳姆首相执政三个月：他能否保持“希望氛围”？

“但与此同时，这种移民方式或许不像现在这样困难，”他在周日发布的一份报告中说。

“那种来来往往的‘旋转门’式移民模式是不同的。自那以后，移民的平衡已经发生了变化，不是吗？我认为我们必须就这些问题进行坦诚的讨论，”他说。

移民问题是 2016 年英国脱欧公投的关键因素，最终英国人以微弱优势投票决定脱离欧盟。