Different Leave figures promoted different destinations. Norway-style arrangements were openly discussed, and Norway participates in the Single Market with free movement. So it is historically incorrect to retrospectively compress every Leave vote into: 17.4 million people voted specifically to end freedom of movement. Free movement was a major issue in the 2016 campaign, amplified by Nigel Farage’s notorious “Breaking Point” poster, which was widely condemned as racist. But it was NOT the proposition on the ballot paper. Yesterday @bbclaurak repeatedly treated freedom of movement as the defining core of the 2016 Brexit decision. She explicitly told @AngelaRayner that free movement was “at the heart of the Brexit debate” and repeatedly pressed her on whether it should return. But the actual referendum question asked only whether the UK should remain in or leave the European Union. It did not ask voters whether Britain should: • leave the Single Market • leave the customs union • end freedom of movement • or adopt any particular model of Brexit. Those choices came afterwards. 2016 decided EU membership. It did not write every subsequent interpretation of Brexit permanently into the constitution.

⏰ For six years since Britain left the Single Market, I’ve been waiting for a Prime Minister prepared to explain why we may have to go back in. Because of food security, energy security, investment, supply chains and national resilience. You cannot build a serious food-security strategy while putting permanent barriers between Britain and its largest neighbouring food market. You cannot talk about sovereignty while becoming more dependent on fragile global supply chains for food, fuel and fertiliser. And you cannot repair Brexit properly while refusing even to discuss the obligations that come with deeper European integration. At last we have a Prime Minister @andyburnham prepared to start giving the country some of the hard truths 👏 This conversation is long overdue.