The autumn Budget will be delivered on Wednesday, but speculation over its contents has been overshadowed by Andy Burnham saying in the Sunday Times that the country needs an ‘honest discussion’ about a possible return to freedom of movement, in pursuit of a better deal with the EU. Nigel Farage has called the comments a ‘total betrayal’ of Brexit voters, including those in Burnham’s Makerfield constituency.

On the BBC, Laura Kuenssberg showed Housing Secretary Angela Rayner a clip from a few months ago of the Prime Minister saying ‘the last thing we should do right now is rerun those [Brexit] arguments’, and asked why he was now doing exactly that. Rayner denied the Prime Minister had reversed his decision, and claimed that ten years on from the referendum, with exports down 20 per cent, the government wanted an ‘honest conversation’ about Britain’s relationship with Europe. Kuenssberg pointed out that freedom of movement was at the heart of the Brexit debate, and noted that Labour’s 2024 manifesto ruled out a return to freedom of movement. Rayner denied that Burnham was breaking that promise, saying the issue would not be reopened in this parliament, but that the government ‘can’t go backwards’. Rayner claimed that the Prime Minister had shown he is tackling ‘the big issues’.

Robert Jenrick: ‘It’s completely mad’

Reform’s Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick had a different view, telling the BBC that Andy Burnham’s position was ‘completely mad’. Jenrick claimed that Burnham was........

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