The Cabinet is split almost right down the middle over whether the UK should rejoin the EU, The i Paper can reveal.

And there are further divisions on the question of whether any move to rejoin should be underpinned with a referendum or not.

A narrow majority of Andy Burnham’s ministers back a return to the bloc, but they remain divided over whether a second referendum would be necessary, how quickly Britain should move towards membership and whether Labour risks reopening the toxic divisions of the Brexit years.

It comes as the Prime Minister is hoping to sign a Brexit-reset deal next month which will open the door for under-30s to work and study in Europe, and make trade with the EU easier.

Burnham is expected to use this forthcoming UK-EU summit in Brussels on 20 November as a springboard for a wider national debate about Britain’s place in Europe, with rejoining on the table, along with membership of the customs union or single market.

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Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper defends Andy Burnham’s recent commentary on a return to EU freedom of movement.

On BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, she said: “Under freedom of movement, it works both ways. It’s a reciprocal agreement.

“If there aren’t any jobs here in the UK, you’re not going to get a lot of people coming over here for jobs that don’t exist.

“But what it will do is it will reduce the cost of doing business. It will tear down the red tape and the paperwork that exists for British businesses, it will see more businesses coming here.”

“Freedom of movement, as well as freedom of capital and trade and ripping up red tape that has absolutely strangled British businesses, would be a really good thing for growth,” she added.

Reform UK’s Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick has spoken out against the Prime Minister’s recent comments on Britain’s potential to re-join free movement in the EU.

On BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, he said mass migration is a “disaster” for working Britons.

He said: “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.”

“What all the data now shows is that mass migration has been a disaster for living standards, for working people, for Brits in this county,” he added.

In January 2026, Jenrick defected to Reform UK after Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch sacked him as shadow justice secretary and removed his party whip, given she uncovered evidence of his planned defection.

Jenrick later appeared alongside Reform UK leader Nigel Farage at a press conference to officially join the party, becoming its sixth sitting MP in the House of Commons.

The shadow chancellor told Sunday Morning on Sky News that the UK must allocate 3% of the economy on defence by 2030.

“That is because it is the mere average level of spend across NATO,” he said.

He added: “Politicians love having their photograph taken next to a shiny new drone or a piece of kit – but that falls short of the 3%.

“I don’t call for him to resign lightly, but defence is the first duty of government.

“We are scrabbling around trying to find £10 billion for defence in 2030 when the Government is increasing the welfare budget alone by £50 billion – so that is just wrong.

“They have got to get their priorities right and if they can’t do that, no more evasion – resign.”

A new IPSOS poll projects Labour as ahead with an eight-point lead over its rivals – the party’s largest share recorded in this parliament.

The data shows 32% of pollers would re-elect the government at the next General Election and are up five points from last month.

Now, the poll suggests Labour’s nearest rival is the Conservative Party who have not been projected in second place since June 2025.

Previously, Reform UK had been second but have now lost three points with only 20% pof the share.

Angela Rayner said Britain should keep its options open with the European Union but maintained that the Prime Minister was not re-opening arguments of the 2016 referendum.

The housing secretary said on BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “We’re saying, as we go forward into the future, we have a summit coming up, we have a 10-year plan that we’re writing.

“It’s 10 years on since we left the European Union. We can’t go backwards.

“That’s not a possibility for us. We have to go forwards, and therefore you have to look at what that future relationship will look like.”

She added: “I want to see the best deal for the people of my constituency and for Britain. We haven’t got the best deal at the moment.

“So, I would like us to have an honest conversation about what the trade-offs could be and then put that to the people at a general election.”

In 2018, Rayner said on BBC Question Time as shadow education secretary that a second referendum “undermines democracy in itself”.

She said: “People made the decision and you can’t keep going back saying: Would you like to answer it in a different way?”

Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, criticised the Prime Minister after he announced he would welcome an “honest discussion” on rejoining the European Union.

In an interview with the Sunday Times, Andy Burnham discussed Britain’s potential to rejoin the bloc, single market and free movement.

He suggested the migration discourse throughout the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign was “different” from current challenges.

“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,” he said.

Farage labelled the Prime Minister as “deluded” after the comments made in the interview.

The Reform UK leader said: “This is a total betrayal of Brexit Britain and his Makerfield pitch.

“He is also deluded to say immigration was different when we were members of the EU. We will fight this dishonesty.”

In 2016, the UK voted to leave the EU by 52% to 48% with Nigel Farage as one of its crucial figureheads.

Burnham won the Greater Manchester seat of Makerfield in June at a by-election, which saw him become Prime Minister the following month.

As a candidate in the by-election, he promised not to “re-run” Brexit arguments in the constituency which voted to leave the EU.

When he resigned as defence secretary in June, John Healey raged that the Treasury had been “unwilling … to commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country at this time of rising threats”.

Now that he is in charge of that very same Treasury, the Chancellor will have little of substance to say on defence spending in his Budget, as he is deferring the major announcement for next year’s spending review.

Yet he will still want to make clear he has not deserted his former comrades at the Ministry of Defence and in the armed forces.

As expected, Healey will set out how the £4.7bn black hole in the Defence Investment Plan left by his predecessor will be funded.

I predict he will want to go further, however, and stress how committed he is to defence – even if the numbers aren’t quite there yet.

It will be a section of the Budget statement big on rhetoric about the generational threat facing the country and how wedded the government is to keeping the country safe.

This will be an important counterweight to Andy Burnham’s slip at PMQs last month, when he said that national security “can’t come at the expense of social security” – which sent alarm bells ringing among the generals.

The Chancellor will allocate billions of pounds on new defence spending in Wednesday’s Budget.

This allocation will raise the percentage of UK GDP spent on defence, as Healey also plans to invest more into two large government investment funds: National Wealth Fund and British Business Bank.

Healey has been under intense pressure to increase defence spending, having resigned as Sir Keir Starmer’s defence secretary in June this year.

Previously, he called for spending to rise to 3 per cent of GDP by 2030 and this new funding intends to signal a “downpayment” on his ambition.

Andrew Griffith, the shadow chancellor, called on Saturday for the chancellor to resign if he did not raise spending to 3 per cent.

Last summer, the UK committed to the new NATO spending target of 3.5% of GDP on core defence by 2035.

The first guest on Sunday Morning With… Anne McElvoy is the housing, communities, and local government secretary, Angela Rayner.

Anne began by asking about reports that there will be an extra billion pounds for social and affordable housing in the budget on Wednesday.

While she did not explicitly confirm that, Rayner said: “We know the pressures that are on social housing at the moment, and the prime minister was very clear that we need to build more council housing.

“We’ve already put £10bn out through the door so that we can get our social and affordable homes programme moving, and hopefully the budget next week will show that we’re really committed to making sure that we’re building the biggest wave of council housing since the 1980s.”

At the last general election, Labour pledged to build 1.5 million new homes this parliament – but Rayner said: “That target was always a stretch target.

“And we’ve seen the situation in the Middle East has meant that construction costs have gone up.

“And what we’re trying to do is help the market and help people build the homes that we need.”

John Healey plans to announce a “green tax” on imported fuels in next week’s Budget, amid growing fears that petrol prices could rise.

This comes as the Chancellor considers proposing a “carbon-change” on petrol and diesel imports in as his aim to “level the playing field” with net zero costs.

Currently, British refineries face millions of pounds in net-zero expenses that competitors do not, which allows imported fuel to charge less than them.

As fuel duty has been frozen until December 31 2026, individuals will not be immediately affected by the change but it remains unclear whether the Government will extend this freeze into the next year.

Miatta Fahnbulleh, the Energy Secretary, is believed to support the reform and was preparing to propose it to the Chancellor this week.

Opponents worry the charge would ultimately lead to higher prices for consumers.

John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said the “shameless tax raid” is “disguised at environmental policy”.

He added: “Burnham must rule out introducing new punitive green taxes in the Budget.”

Andy Burnham must not rush any commitment to rejoin the EU, senior pro-Europe Labour figures have warned.

The Prime Minister opened the door to reversing Brexit in his party conference speech last month, triggering a wave of party big beasts, think-tanks and pollsters making the case for rejoining.

But senior Labour figures who regard themselves as pro-EU fear a rushed commitment or campaign could backfire.

They told The i Paper that Burnham would need to be honest with the public about the realistic options for future EU relations and any trade-offs.

Without this, they fear another 2016-style debate dominated by questionable claims that could lose them the battle over Brexit again.

The i Paper revealed on Friday that Burnham’s Cabinet is split over whether the UK should rejoin the EU and there are further divisions over whether or not to hold a second referendum.

Pro-Europe Labour politicians are urging Burnham to work with the EU to produce a realistic set of options and be open about the trade-offs of each one so that any debate is not dominated by speculation over what might be possible.

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Good morning and welcome to our coverage.

Andy Burnham has said there needs to be an “honest discussion” over a return to free movement between the UK and EU.

The Prime Minister, who has also dangled the possibility of rejoining the EU, said he wants to consider various options for a new relationship with the bloc.

While acknowledging that migration had been a major factor in the Brexit referendum, Burnham told “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”.

But he said he could not imagine recommending the UK joins the Schengen borderless area or ditches the pound to adopt the euro.

“I can’t see myself ever recommending anything that would involve joining the euro or Schengen,” he added.