❗️EXCLUSIVE❗️ Andy Burnham has opened the door to Britain rejoining the EU’s free movement rules, arguing an “honest discussion” about the idea is needed The PM said the nature of immigration has been “different” since Brexit, with more foreigners moving permanently to the UK rather than returning home Burnham noted how his father, Roy, an engineer, took advantage of the EU rules in the 1990s to work in Germany He also said since leaving the bloc Britain has lost access to ‘Eurodac’, an EU database on border crossings “I think you have to have a very factual, quite evidence-based debate about this,” he said Burnham made clear staying out of free movement would **not** be a red line for talks (unlike adopting the Euro or rejoining the Schengen Area) Burnham made the comments to me in one of four interviews conducted during his first 100 days in office. All unpacked in tomorrow’s Sunday Times. It’s big news. Free movement seen as a key reason why the country voted Brexit in 2016. No PM has made the argument for potentially rejoining since… until now. (Important to note: Burnham accepts there were ‘very significant challenges’ too with free movement. Hasn’t reached a firm decision yes or no. He continues to mull over ‘options’ for closer EU ties) KEY BURNHAM QUOTE “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. 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.” Read the full story here: ‘Andy Burnham is open to adopting EU free movement’ thetimes.com/article/491a046…