Burnham told UK must accept free movement and losing Thatcher's £5bn rebate if it wants to rejoin the EU - as top minister signals opposition

Published: 06:01 EDT, 8 November 2026 | Updated: 06:01 EDT, 8 November 2026 Andy Burnham was today warned that the European Union will extract a heavy price if he tries to undo Brexit and have Britain rejoin. Brussels' former chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said Britain cannot undo Brexit without opening its borders to having freedom of movement between the UK and the EU, one of the key reasons for leaving.In a television interview Mr Barnier also said that the £5billion annual rebate on membership costs won by Margaret Thatcher in 1984 would also not be renewed.His intervention came as the Prime Minister today said that closer ties with Brussels could help reduce the cost of living for millions of Britons. Mr Burnham is due to sign a series of deals with the EU on November 20 in Brussels that are focused on bringing down post-Brexit trade barriers on food and farming, as well as working more closely on emissions trading.He has been at pains to say the British public will make the final call on whether to fully rejoin the EU, more than a decade after the vote to leave. But he has suggested he wants to go further in deepening ties with Europe in the aftermath of the summit.Today Cabinet Minister Lisa Nandy, a close political ally of the PM, suggested she was against rejoining. Ms Nandy, the MP for leave-supporting Wigan, told the BBC 'there are costs as well as benefits to a closer relationship'. Brussels' former chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said Britain cannot undo Brexit without opening its borders to having freedom of movement His intervention came as the Prime Minister today said that closer ties with Brussels could help reduce the cost of living for millions of Britons. Ms Nandy, the MP for leave-supporting Wigan, told the BBC 'there are costs as well as benefits to a closer relationship''The only thing that I think the British people are absolutely united on right now is that we left the European Union a decade ago with the promise of a close Brexit deal and the promise of benefits from that deal, and most of those have not been realised,' she added.Her intervention came as Mr Barnier was asked if Britain could rejoin the single market without having unlimited immigration backwards and forwards.He replied: 'There is no cherry picking. There will be no possibility to have one freedom and not the other.'The four freedoms (of good, movement of people, services and capital) are clearly the four conditions to be inside the single market.'He said there would be no fee simply to rejoin, but added: 'There will be usual contribution of any member state to build to the European budget.'The Conservatives today released a new analysis suggesting the EU rest could cost the UK £23billion over the space of a decade, equal to £1,220 per family. It cited the costs paid by Switzerland for what it says is a similar level of access to the bloc. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said: 'Now Britain has left the EU, we should continue to negotiate confidently with our European friends. What I see from Burnham is not confidence but weakness.'Speaking to the Sunday Mirror ahead of the Brussels gathering, Mr Burnham made a case for forging closer ties with the UK's continental neighbours based on bringing down household costs.He told the newspaper: 'It pays to have a good relationship with your neighbours, and the practical deals we are agreeing with Europe will pay off for families across the UK'Cutting red tape on food coming in and out of the country will ease pressure on prices at the supermarket, while making life easier for farmers and food producers.'This summit will show what we can achieve when we work together, but it doesn't need to be the end of our ambition.'Working more closely with Europe could drive growth, make our country safer and give us more tools to tackle illegal migration. That's a conversation worth having.'Government sources suggested to the Sunday Mirror that restoring access to the EU's migration database would be helpful to tackling illegal channel crossings and other migration crime in future.