Andy Burnham’s call for the nation to consider returning to free movement with the European Union has sparked a backlash among “Red Wall” Labour MPs.
Reopening the Brexit debate offers an “incomprehensible boost” to Reform UK, say MPs in the North of England who fear their seats are vulnerable to Nigel Farage’s party.
Both Cabinet ministers and Labour backbenchers appear split after the Prime Minister said last month that all options are on the table for close ties with the EU – including going “all the way” to rejoin the bloc.
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Rapper Nicki Minaj joins Trump onstage at Michigan rally
The musician joined the Republican campaign ahead of the midterm elections on 3 November.
What did she say?
Minaj, who has shown support for Donald Trump in the past, called herself his “number one fan”.
On Sunday, she flew into Port Huron on Air Force One, before she addressed the rally. She said: “We really need all these great people to be elected, because this is a major turning point for our country.”
Rallying support for the GOP
Trump called the rapper “beautiful” and “smart” before adding: “By the way, I looked at a beautiful ass before. Nicki Minaj. That’s hard to miss.”
He also hit out at Democratic senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, alleging he would “invite jihadists” to the US.
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Locked in a tight race
El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers are locked in an extremely tight race just days ahead of the midterm elections.
Former president Barack Obama lent his weight to the Democrat campaign at a rally on Saturday.
Campaigning in Ohio and Michigan, Obama told crowds: “This election is our last best chance to at least rein in some of the foolishness of this administration.”
Brazil’s President Lula wins fourth term – what we know
The left-wing incumbent has prevailed after a bitter election campaign, but his right-wing opponent Flávio Bolsonaro has not conceded.
Lula clings on to presidency
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won 51.79 per cent of votes in the run-off agianst Bolsonaro, who gained 48.21 per cent.
Lula celebrated a “historic victory”, his fourth after serving as president from 2003 to 2010, then again from January 2023.
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Bitter road to victory
- Bolsonaro had beaten Lula in the first round vote on 4 October.
- Observers thought it might not be possible for the incumbent to turn his fortunes around in less than a month.
But Lula’s camp successfully utilised popular demonstrations and a significant social media drive.
Bolsonaro refuses to accept defeat
- The son of the former president criticised the extension of polling by two hours.
- He told supporters he would try and get the election annulled.
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Who will be hit badly by the Budget?
John Healey will deliver his first Budget as Chancellor on Wednesday, but he may have little room to manoeuvre due to surging Government debt costs.
Any new spending will probably have to be paid for with trade-offs elsewhere.
Who will be worse off?
- Business sources suspect Healey is set to pause Labour’s pledge to bring rates for young workers on minimum wage into line with over-21s.
Healey signalled concern about the impact on jobs.
- reports that Healey is considering reversing former chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s cut to the surcharge.
Worse off: people who owe tax
It can currently only do so where a debt exceeds £1,000, and must leave at least £5,000 in the account – but under the reported plans the threshold would fall to as little as a few pounds.
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Who will be better off?
- For the first time, the full new state pension is set to rise above the personal allowance.
- This means will be better off as they will not pay income tax.
- Households struggling with energy bills are also anticipated to have some relief.
- Healey is expected to expand the Warm Home Discount, which takes £150 off bills for households on means-tested benefits.
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Who else?
Burnham and Healey are committed to replacing the Lifetime ISA with a new ISA, The i Paper has been told, which would pay a government bonus when savers buy their first home.
The decision to leave capital gains tax untouched will be beneficial for , too.
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How rare cancer behaves differently depending on location
Scientists at the University of Edinburgh have found that a rare, aggressive cancer, commonly occurring in the uterus, abdomen and limbs, behaves differently depending on where it is found in the body.
What you need to know
- Leiomyosarcoma is the most common subtype of soft tissue sarcoma.
- It affects smooth muscle cells, also known as involuntary muscles, which are found in the walls of hollow organs.
- Around 600 cases of leiomyosarcoma are diagnosed each year in the UK.
- Scientists studied more than 11,700 patients with the condition.
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The findings of the study
Researchers found that leiomyosarcomas of the uterus, urinary tract and trunk had the poorest survival rates, compared with cancers of the head and neck, limbs, and male reproductive tract.
There are also significantly poorer outcomes for Black patients, widowed patients and those from lower-income households.
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Why is this important?
This study shows why our investment into rare cancers is key. It highlights how research can uncover critical differences between tumours which is vital for developing more effective, personalised treatments for patients.
Dr Catherine Elliott, Cancer Research UK’s director of research
Why demand to see tribute acts is on the rise
Venues say they are putting on more events to cater to a growing cohort of people who want a more affordable night out, as fans are priced out of seeing big artists perform live.
Cost of living hits music fans
Around a fifth of UK adults have attended a tribute act show in the past 12 months, a survey by the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) found.
More than two-thirds agreed that seeing major acts live has become too expensive.
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Harder, better, faster, cheaper
The soaring prices of tickets to attend live concerts has come under scrutiny following world tours for big artists like Harry Styles, Taylor Swift and Beyonce in recent years.
Instead, audiences are increasingly turning to tribute acts such as Arctic Numpties, Noasis, Fleetwood Bac, Daft Funk and Pitbull to hear the back catalogues of their favourite artists.
Paying tribute for less
Dan Ickowitz-Seidler, the director of Propaganda Venues, said the group is booking more tribute shows in response to a “real increase” in demand.
“People want an affordable night out where they can see a quality band, hear songs they love and have a great evening with friends,” he said.
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What young people want out of the Budget
The priorities of those under 40 reflect the pressures facing a generation trying to get ahead.
We speak to three young people in their twenties and thirties about what they want to see announced on 28 October.
The ‘broken’ student loan system
Researcher Toby Whelton, 24, said: “Retroactive changes to loan terms, made long after I graduated, will cost me tens of thousands more over my lifetime.”
Whelton wants to see the government reduce the repayment rate to 5 per cent as he thinks the current rate of 9 per cent is “simply too high”.
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‘I want to see income tax thresholds rise’
- Dan Johnson, from Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear, wants to see an end to the freezing of income tax thresholds in the UK.
Currently, the income tax personal allowance remains frozen at £12,570, and the higher-rate threshold remains frozen at £50,270.- These aren’t due to be unfrozen until 2031.
The 35-year-old said: “This is a stealth tax that’s brought millions of middle earners into the 40 per cent tax band. It’s a disincentive to earning more and taking on more responsibility.”
‘Energy costs are a worry’
Taylor Cooper, 31, wants more support with everyday costs for working households.
“The Chancellor could help by introducing targeted support to reduce energy bills, taking steps to bring mortgage costs down and making sure working households keep more of what they earn,” she said.
Cooper would love to see a postponement of any planned increase in fuel duty as petrol prices have soared in recent months.
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Burnham said at the weekend that it was time for an “honest discussion” about whether to accept the EU’s freedom of movement. The principle would see people on the continent being able to work in the UK and vice versa.
“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],” the PM told .
“Revolving-door migration where people would come and then go back is different,” Burnham 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.”
A mandate to seek a freedom of movement deal with the EU could be done without a referendum, should Labour put it in their next election manifesto, Burnham also revealed.
Housing Secretary Angela Rayner backed the idea. “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,” she told BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.
YouGov’s latest EU tracker, conducted in September, found 59 per cent of Britons would support rejoining, against 32 per cent opposed.
Pro-Europe campaigners Best for Britain recently shared polling with senior Labour figures in an effort to show that a commitment to rejoining could help win back voters who have switched to the Liberal Democrats, Greens, SNP and Plaid Cymru.
And a YouGov survey, which questioned more than 10,000 adults, suggested that including a manifesto commitment to rejoin would boost enthusiasm for Labour by 7 per cent.
Burnham repeated his desire to rejoin the EU during an interview with ITV’s on Monday, but added: “I am not going to move ahead of the public. You have to make sure that the British public are the bosses here.”
But Reform UK’s leader said the idea of dropping immigration controls with the EU to bring back freedom of movement was a “total betrayal of Brexit Britain”.
Red Wall MPs, trying to hold off Reform in Brexit-voting areas, are worried about fuelling Farage’s arguments about immigration.
Burnham’s comments regarding free movement were an “incomprehensible boost to Reform UK”, one Red Wall Labour MP told The i Paper.
Unease is wider than the Red Wall in the North and Midlands, the MP said. A lot of Labour MPs believe the Brexit debate “will be extremely divisive and reopen culture wars just when the right are in retreat”, they added.
David Smith, MP for North Northumberland, told The i Paper he was against a return to free movement, or any wider push at full EU membership through a second referendum.
“As someone who voted Remain and campaigned for it in the north east, I believe we have to accept that the democratic decision of the country in the Brexit referendum was a generational one,” Smith said.
Jonathan Hinder, MP for Pendle and Clitheroe, recently spoke in the House of Commons urging Burnham to rule out any return to freedom of movement.
There would have to be a referendum on such a big change, Hinder said in a post on X. “And when presented with a return to freedom of movement in a referendum, how would the country vote? It wouldn’t be close.”
Jonathan Brash, the Labour MP for Hartlepool, recently told said the party cannot keep “playing a sort of Brexit Hokey Cokey”, adding: “The British people made their decision.”
Jon Trickett, MP for Normanton and Hemsworth, writing for , said reopening the Brexit debate would “betray” Labour’s manifesto promises and “plunge the nation into the paralysing polarisation”.
Free movement ‘should be looked at afresh’
However, not all Red Wall MPs are opposed to much closer alignment with the EU.
Andy McDonald, MP for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East, told The i Paper that he was “glad” Burnham had raised the free movement issue.
“The UK would be so much better served if we had the ability to work more collaboratively with our European trading partners,” said McDonald.
“Freedom of movement can be part of that and it should be looked at afresh in the context of securing an improved and closer trading relationship with the EU.”
Pro-EU Labour MPs are hugely encouraged by Burnham’s comments.
Stella Creasy, the chair of the Labour Movement for Europe, said Burnham was right to start a “grown-up conversation about what EU freedom of movement actually means to our supply chains and for jobs for British citizens”.
Burnham has said he would not yet “jump to a firm position” on free movement, but explained that it would not be a red line in future talks with Brussels.
Burnham has promised to set out possibilities for the UK’s long-term relationship with the EU at a Brussels summit on 20 November – with rejoining likely to be an option.
Cabinet and backbenchers split
Cabinet members appear split on the Burnham’s push to reopen the debate about the possibility of reversing Brexit. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband and Defence Secretary Wes Streeting have spoken enthusiastically about seeking much closer ties with Europe.
But Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has been cautious about the idea of breaking Labour’s previous manifesto promises. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has said a return to the debate risked “paralysis”. One senior minister recently told The i Paper there was “no appetite” for rejoining the EU.
Labour should be bold enough to make full membership a “medium-term” goal, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) think-tank.
Polling commissioned by the IPPR and Persuasion UK this month found that more than half (52 per cent) of voters want to rejoin the EU, compared with only 29 per cent who wanted to stay out.
Luke Tryl, executive director at the More in Common research group, said British voters were now less concerned about free movement. Recent polling by the group found that 51 per cent said it would be “acceptable”.
However, Britain’s budget contributions to the EU and the “spectre” of having to join Euro are much less acceptable to voters, he added.