Labour leadership frontrunner makes fifth policy reversal since becoming by-election candidate
Daily Telegraph 28/05/26
Andy Burnham has dropped his support for migrants being given immediate access to benefits in the UK, in his latest about-turn on policy.
Mr Burnham repeatedly voiced his opposition to the no recourse to public funds (NRPF) policy that bars migrants from the benefits system until they obtain permanent residence.
But The Times reported that Mr Burnham’s team stated he no longer stood by the policy.
NRPF has been UK policy since 1999, and means that migrants on work, study or family visas cannot access public funds such as housing support, Universal Credit or disability benefit.
Only when a foreign citizen has been granted indefinite leave to remain (ILR), allowing them to live, study and work in the UK permanently, is the ban on benefits lifted.
The Mayor of Greater Manchester still features a call on his website from 2019 calling on Boris Johnson, then prime minister, to abolish the policy.
He most recently urged for the policy to be scrapped in 2023, signing a letter with 11 other regional figures calling on the Tories to “end NRPF in order to end rough sleeping”.
The change in stance is Mr Burnham’s fifth about-turn on policy since he became the Labour candidate for the Makerfield by-election.
A spokesman for Mr Burnham told The Times: “Andy’s been very clear that he recognises that towns across this country want an immigration system to be fair and they want to know that the Government has control – and it is right to pursue root and branch reform.
“He strongly believes we need control as well as compassion. Britain has always welcomed those who come here and contribute and Greater Manchester is testament to that.”
The Mayor of Greater Manchester’s biggest challenger for the seat is Robert Kenyon, of Reform UK, whose campaign focuses on immigration.
Mr Burnham has also reversed his positions on the European Union, by declaring earlier this month that he was “not advocating” for rejoining the bloc.
He had told The Guardian at the Labour Party conference last year that he wanted to see the UK back in the EU in his lifetime.
Speaking on the campaign trail in Makerfield last week, Mr Burnham said that he believed UK net migration needed to “fall further”.
Mr Burnham also expressed support for Shabana Mahmood’s policy of doubling the amount of time it takes for migrants to qualify for ILR.
This came despite previously saying that the plans would leave people “in a sense of limbo and unable to integrate”.
If NRPF were scrapped, analysis of Home Office data by the Centre for Migration Control predicts that it would make 3.3 million migrants eligible for welfare.
Two million of those arrived in Britain within the last three years, according to the think tank.
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