LONDON: UK leader Andy Burnham indicated he was open to readopting the European Union's free movement rules as part of Britain's future relationship with the bloc, said a report published on Sunday. The Labour prime minister has promised to lay out different options for closer relations with Europe around the time of a long-awaited UK-EU summit in Brussels next month.
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 the UK has changed since Brexit. Immigration was one of the main reasons for Britons voting narrowly to leave the EU during the divisive 2016 referendum that was triggered by the right-wing Conservatives.
Burnham said immigration into Britain had been "different" since the country left the EU in early 2020. "It was a type of immigration that perhaps wasn't as difficult (as now)," he told the Sunday Times newspaper. "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." — AFP
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