Andy Burnham has made another U-turn, dropping his support for migrants being given immediate access to benefits.
Mr Burnham had previously criticised the policy that prevents migrants from accessing welfare until they have obtained permanent residence in the UK.
However, the Times have reported that he no longer stands by the no recourse to public funds (NRPF) measure.
Mr Burnham is widely expected to challenge Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership should he win the upcoming Makerfield by-election.
However, his change in stance towards migrant benefits is the fifth U-turn he has made since being announced as Labour’s candidate.
Conservative party chairman Kevin Hollinrake said: “Labour’s ‘change’ candidate has already changed his mind on Europe and changed his mind on the bond markets.
“He changed his mind on immigration and changed his mind on trans rights — and the leadership race hasn’t even started yet.”
Here, we explain all of Andy Burnham’s recent U-turns.
Benefits for migrants
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 until they have been granted indefinite leave to remain.
Mr Burnham has repeatedly expressed opposition to the policy, with his website featuring a call from 2019 for Boris Johnson to abolish it.
He most recently expressed his opposition in 2023, when he and 11 others signed a letter telling the Conservatives to “end NRPF in order to end rough sleeping”.
However, 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.”
Analysis of Home Office data by the Centre for Migration Control has predicted that if NRPF were scrapped, 3.3 million migrants would become eligible for UK welfare, with two million of those arriving in the past three years.
Immigration Reforms
Mr Burnham had previously said that Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s plans to double the time it takes for migrants to qualify for indefinite leave to remain would leave people “in a sense of limbo and unable to integrate”.
However, speaking on the campaign trail in Makerfield last week, he said that he believed UK net migration needed to “fall further” and expressed support for the policy.
One of Mr Burnham’s main challengers in Makerfield is Reform UK’s Robert Kenyon, whose campaign is focused on immigration.
Rejoining the EU
Mr Burnham has also reversed his position on the EU, as he attempts to win the Leave-voting Makerfield constituency.
Makerfield voted by around 65% to leave the EU during the 2016 referendum, making it one of Labour’s most strongly Eurosceptic seats.
He declared earlier this month that he was “not advocating” rejoining the bloc, declaring that he would “respect the result” of the referendum.
But at the Labour Party conference last year, he told The Guardian that he wanted to see the UK back in the EU in his lifetime.
Reeves’ fiscal rules
Mr Burnham has insisted that he would stick to Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ strict fiscal rules, having previously said that Britain was too “in hock” to the bond markets.
He had earlier suggested that if he came to power he would exempt defence spending, but earlier this month he said that he supported the government’s current fiscal rules and would have a plan to get debt down.
Single-sex spaces
Mr Burnham has performed a U-turn on trans rights, saying he supports the new equalities watchdog guidance on single-sex spaces.
The Greater Manchester mayor had previously said that biological men who identified as women should be able to use female toilets.
However, he now says that he supports the new code of practice, stating at a rally: “I think the time has come to take the Supreme Court ruling and the guidance and implement it.”
