Angela Rayner today defended the Prime Minister's call for an 'honest conversation about returning to EU free movement rules.

After Labour was accused of 'betrayal', the Housing Secretary insisted Andy Burnham does not want to reopen the 2016 referendum debate, despite his desire for a new relationship with the EU. 

She also claimed it was part of the PM's efforts to 'tackle the big issues' and 'bring the country together'.

Mr Burnham said in a newspaper interview he wants an 'honest discussion' about the possibility of returning to free movement between the UK and EU.

If EU free movement rules were restored, citizens from all 28 of the bloc's member states would be given the right to enter and reside in Britain – sparking fierce backlash from the Tories and Reform UK. 

Reform leader Nigel Farage said it was a 'total betrayal' of both Brexit and Mr Burnham's promises during his Makerfield by-election campaign.

Writing on social media, Mr Farage 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.'

Jeremy Hunt, the former Tory chancellor, claimed a return to free movement would be a 'hammer blow' to Labour's efforts to tackle youth unemployment and reduce the ballooning welfare bill. 

Speaking to the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg he said: 'If I had any cornflakes this morning I would have choked on them. I was absolutely astonished.

'We have a million people not in employment, education or training – young people – and the Government says it's serious about getting them back into work,' he added.

'To suddenly say you are prepared to negotiate allowing people from all over Europe to come and take those jobs, I think it will be a hammer blow to those plans to get people off welfare and into work.'

The PM has outlined his intent to consider various options for Britain's long-term relationship with the EU and insisted the 'status quo is not good enough'.

He made clear today that staying outside of free movement rules would not be a red line for talks with Brussels.

'I think you have to have a very factual, quite evidence-based debate about this,' he told the newspaper.

Mr Burnham also suggested the type of legal migration experienced during the UK's years of EU membership was different from the challenges faced now. 

'It was generally younger people, not always, but spending a few years, then going back,' he said. 'And obviously the ease of that worked for British people as well.'

Appearing on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show, Ms Rayner was quizzed about Mr Burnham's comments ahead of the Makerfield campaign in which he warned 'the last thing we should do right now is re-run those arguments' about Brexit.

Ahead of an upcoming UK-EU summit on November 20, Ms Rayner said the PM 'is very clear as we go into that summit, we should be having an honest conversation about how Britain can get the best deal going forward for the next decade'.

'We're saying, as we go forward into the future, we have a summit coming up, we have a ten-year plan that we're writing,' the Cabinet minister added.

'It's ten 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 continued: '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 because we've seen exports reduced by 20 per cent, we've seen the red tape and the friction that has meant that a lot of our businesses are not able to trade in the way that they would like with our biggest trading partners.

'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.'

Ms Rayner repeatedly declined to say whether she wanted the country to return to EU free movement rules herself.

But she defended the PM's stance as part of his efforts at 'bringing the country together'. 

'The PM is clear he wants to have the conversation, he's tackling the big issues - like the national care service he wants to introduce, he's talked about the changes to the triple lock,' she said.

'This is part of a wider programme... bringing the country together, thinking about where the country goes into the future, not the old arguments of the past.'

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said on social media: 'This is yet another example of Burnham's foot-in-mouth syndrome. He hasn't thought this through or the implications.

'Most people who voted for Brexit did so because they didn't want free movement. Too many politicians have failed to understand the significance and impact of immigration on communities.

'We have had more than enough experience of what happens when politicians (including previous Conservative governments) promise control but fail to deliver it. The answer is to learn from those mistakes, not reopen free movement.'

Lord Walker, the boss of supermarket Iceland and a Labour peer, told Times Radio it would be 'dangerous precedent' to 'reopen old wounds' around Brexit.

'We've been there, done that, and I think that's a very dangerous precedent if you don't like the answer of a referendum to go back and keep asking the same question,' he said.

'What does that mean for Scottish independence, for example? I just do not think we want to reopen those old wounds.'

Lord Walker also warned that 'opening up our borders' will not help 'the one million young people that are out of work'.