Andy Burnham says Brexit deal is not good enough and backs 15-year settlement rule
Andy Burnham said the current Brexit deal is not good enough for Britain - but his sharpest words were about immigration: Brexit weakened the UK's control of its borders, he argued, and helped cause the small boats crisis. He also backed the home secretary's plan to make foreign workers wait 15 years for permanent residency.
Andy Burnham says Brexit deal is not good enough and backs 15-year settlement rule
The Makerfield MP set out his verdict on Good Morning Britain on Monday, giving qualified support to Shabana Mahmood's settlement plans while stopping short of any push to reopen the Brexit fight in this parliament.
Brexit 'weakened' immigration control
Burnham argued that leaving the EU did the opposite of what its supporters promised on the issue that dominated the referendum. In his view, Brexit weakened control of immigration, even though that was the big issue at the time, and the country has since seen a different form of immigration in the shape of the small boats crisis.
The reason the small boats crisis has arisen is because we can't return people
He said Britain ended up with a harder Brexit than was proposed in the referendum campaign, and that leaving did not help control the small boats crisis, because people can no longer be returned to Europe in the way they used to be.
Backing the settlement plan
On migration policy, Burnham backed the principle of the home secretary's controversial plan to make foreign workers wait 15 years for permanent residency.
He said Mahmood was right to pursue the plans, describing the idea behind them as one where settlement is a right to be earned not just something that is granted automatically.
Deal not good enough, but no rejoin push
On the Brexit deal itself, Burnham was blunt. He said Brexit has not played out like it was promised to the public and has weakened the economy - but he ruled out major changes in the current parliament. His position, in his own words, breaks down as follows:
- The current deal is not good enough: "I am not going to say at the moment that the deal we've got is good enough for Britain. I don't think it is good"
- He will not move away from the red lines in Labour's manifesto and is not proposing rejoining the EU in this parliament: "We're way, way away from that at this particular point in time."
- Instead, he said practical steps are needed to make the arrangement work better.
One such step, he hopes, could come from diplomacy: Burnham said the UK-EU summit on 20 November could yield a deal good for British food manufacturers, who have been hit hard by Brexit.
Leave-voting constituency and Reform risk
Burnham's caution reflects where he sits politically. 65% of his constituents in Makerfield voted to leave the EU, and he said he would not rerun the referendum - the people of Makerfield, he argued, will decide what happens in relation to Brexit.
His caution is shared across his party. There are concerns among Labour MPs representing leave-voting constituencies in the north of England and the Midlands that reopening the Brexit debate could create opportunities for Reform UK - one reason Burnham keeps his criticism of the deal paired with a refusal to act on it now.
