This is an extract from Nigel Farage’s latest essay. Read it in full and subscribe to his Substack here.
Twelve days ago, at Doncaster Racecourse, I challenged Andy Burnham, the self-proclaimed “King of the North,” to debate rejoining the European Union in Labour’s “Red Wall.”
My message: “Bring it on.”
Naturally, we have to start with the costs associated. Not just the financial outlay but also the price Burnham’s government would be forced to pay in its renewed negotiations. First and foremost: the free movement of people.
In that 2016 Burnham parliamentary speech, he accepted: “The status quo - full free movement - was defeated at the ballot box, so it is not an option.”
Challenged by an SNP MP, he responded: “If he is saying that they were not voting for change on free movement and immigration, I am afraid that he simply was not listening to them.”
Burnham continued: “As it stands, it is not working for the more deprived parts of our country, particularly those where traditional industry has been replaced by lower-skill, lower-wage employment… Free movement was being used to undermine skilled wages and we did not do enough about it. We have to be honest about that.”
Reform UK’s recent analysis has shown that rejoining the EU could send net migration soaring to about 500,000 people per year again. This scarcely accords with Burnham’s 2016 call for “an immigration system that allows greater control and that reduces the numbers coming here.”
Burnham will claim “red lines” on EU negotiations, and perhaps he’ll even convince himself of them. But those of us with decades of experience in Brussels place will know such demands are a non-starter for most EU member states.
Second, there are the eye-watering financial fees. Some models show that it could cost Britain up to £40 billion a year in membership contributions. When we voted to leave in 2016, this number was around £18 billion. The European Union’s next budget is forecast to fall just shy of two trillion euros - and British taxpayers would almost certainly be on the hook for a hefty portion of it in any negotiation to rejoin.
Be in no doubt - the implications of Burnham’s instinctive and irresponsible rhetoric on the EU are massive.
Twelve days ago, at Doncaster Racecourse, I challenged Andy Burnham, the self-proclaimed “King of the North,” to debate rejoining the European Union in Labour’s “Red Wall.”
My message: “Bring it on.”
Naturally, we have to start with the costs associated. Not just the financial outlay but also the price Burnham’s government would be forced to pay in its renewed negotiations. First and foremost: the free movement of people.
In that 2016 Burnham parliamentary speech, he accepted: “The status quo - full free movement - was defeated at the ballot box, so it is not an option.”
Challenged by an SNP MP, he responded: “If he is saying that they were not voting for change on free movement and immigration, I am afraid that he simply was not listening to them.”
Burnham continued: “As it stands, it is not working for the more deprived parts of our country, particularly those where traditional industry has been replaced by lower-skill, lower-wage employment… Free movement was being used to undermine skilled wages and we did not do enough about it. We have to be honest about that.”
Reform UK’s recent analysis has shown that rejoining the EU could send net migration soaring to about 500,000 people per year again. This scarcely accords with Burnham’s 2016 call for “an immigration system that allows greater control and that reduces the numbers coming here.”
Burnham will claim “red lines” on EU negotiations, and perhaps he’ll even convince himself of them. But those of us with decades of experience in Brussels place will know such demands are a non-starter for most EU member states.
Second, there are the eye-watering financial fees. Some models show that it could cost Britain up to £40 billion a year in membership contributions. When we voted to leave in 2016, this number was around £18 billion. The European Union’s next budget is forecast to fall just shy of two trillion euros - and British taxpayers would almost certainly be on the hook for a hefty portion of it in any negotiation to rejoin.
Be in no doubt - the implications of Burnham’s instinctive and irresponsible rhetoric on the EU are massive.
Photo by: Rocco Dipoppa.
