Prime Minister Andy Burnham has refused to rule out a free movement deal with the EU, prompting condemnation from Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch. Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage branded the stance a complete betrayal of the 17.4 million Britons who voted to take back control of the border.
Farage: 'The cat's out of the bag'
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Express, Mr Farage said: "The cat's out of the bag. Andy Burnham wants to open the door to 450 million people and leave us powerless to stop them coming in. Freedom of movement would undercut working people's wages with cheap foreign labour – a complete betrayal of what the British people want and voted for."
The arch-Brexiteer added: "If he wants open-door immigration risking millions more arrivals, he should call a general election and ask the public. Reform will fight the next election on stopping freedom of movement."
Badenoch: 'Foot-in-mouth syndrome'
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said: "This is yet another example of Burnham's foot-in-mouth syndrome. He hasn't thought this through or the implications. Most people who voted for Brexit did so because they didn't want free movement. Too many politicians have failed to understand the significance and impact of immigration on communities."
She added: "We have had more than enough experience of what happens when politicians (including previous Conservative governments) promise control but fail to deliver it. The answer is to learn from those mistakes, not reopen free movement."
Burnham's comments on free movement
Mr Burnham told The Sunday Times: "Freedom of movement had very significant challenges associated with it and I spoke about them in my previous time in parliament. But at the same time, it was a type of immigration that perhaps wasn't as difficult [as now]. Revolving-door migration where people would come and then go back is different."
He added: "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." On free movement, he would only call for "a rounded discussion about it", pointing to his father, who worked in Germany in the 1990s helping to build the country's mobile phone network.
However, he said: "I can't see myself ever recommending anything that would involve joining the euro or Schengen." Mr Burnham voted Remain, campaigned for Remain, and later backed a second referendum. Last year, he told the Labour Party Conference he wanted to see the UK back in the EU "in my lifetime".
In May, while fighting the Makerfield by-election in a seat that backed Leave by around 65%, he promised: "I am not proposing that the UK considers rejoining the EU."
Hunt and Jenrick hit out
Former Tory Chancellor Jeremy Hunt also criticised the proposal, saying he was "absolutely astonished" at it. Citing figures showing more than one million young people are unemployed, he added: "Allowing people from all over Europe to come and take those jobs [...] would be a hammer blow."
Reform UK's Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick branded the idea "completely mad". He told BBC One's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: "I think it's completely mad the idea that this country needs more immigration. It's a total mess at the moment. We're trying to grapple with the Boriswave and all the challenges that we've had in recent times. And Andy Burnham is proposing to open our borders to another 450 million people over whom we'd have no control whatsoever."
Mr Jenrick warned a return to free movement would "undercut the wages of British workers, put more pressure on housing, on the NHS, on doctors, on dentists". He added: "What all the data now shows is that mass migration, importing hundreds of thousands or even millions of people into this country, has been a disaster for living standards, for working people, for Brits in this country."
