Officials Discuss Free Movement With EU Before Summit
British officials have started talks with the EU on a long-term relationship that could include a return to free movement. Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds confirmed it on Tuesday. He also said the British people "are the boss" on what the UK will accept.
Reynolds told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the immediate focus is the EU summit in November. It is meant to seal a deal easing some trading restrictions, plus a youth mobility agreement. A food and drink deal and changes on emissions trading would make a significant difference, he said.
Officials "will be talking to them about what the future options for our relationship might be", Reynolds said. But he stressed that "here and now" the summit comes first.
No decision without voters
Prime minister Andy Burnham wants a long-term, stable relationship with the bloc, Reynolds said. Burnham will set out the long-term position after the summit and be "frank with the British people about what the trade-offs are".
Reynolds said "no assumptions" had been made about the next stage. No decision would be taken without voters having a say. He did not say whether that would mean a general election or a referendum. "The British people are the people who will decide this," he said.
Burnham raised the issue in an interview with the Sunday Times. He called for an "honest discussion" on free movement and made clear that staying out of it would no longer be a red line in EU talks. He said rejoining the single market and accepting free movement could happen without another referendum if Labour put it in its manifesto. Fully rejoining the EU, he said, would need another in-out vote.
The prime minister said free movement "had very significant challenges associated with it". He added that "revolving-door migration where people would come and then go back is different" and that the balance of migration has changed since then.
Caution and criticism
Some backbenchers in heavily pro-Brexit seats in the north and Midlands are wary. Melanie Onn, Labour MP for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes, called the conversation "unnecessary" at this time. "I am still not over the kind of very divisive debate that we had when we were leaving the EU," she said. She added that she did not think the scars had healed for many people around the country.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said it would be "very, very poor indeed" to begin discussing freedom of movement. He noted that Burnham had told leave-voting Makerfield five months ago he would not reopen the arguments. "This prime minister has no mandate," Farage said.
Source: The Guardian