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Surrendering control to the EU by signing up to freedom of movement would land British taxpayers with a crippling multi-billion-pound bill, Reform UK has warned. Nigel Farage’s party claims it would heap a huge, permanent burden on the public purse in welfare, infrastructure and other benefits.

The stark warning came after Andy Burnham was humiliated when his own Downing Street spin-doctors slapped down his Brexit pledge just hours after he made it. The Prime Minister insisted Britain would never return to free movement without a referendum, only for No 10 to say he was not proposing any return at all. Reform’s figures claim that 744,679 EU nationals with settled status are already claiming Universal Credit at a cost of £7.8billion a year. Of that, £3.3billion goes to people who do not work at all.

If net EU migration returned to its pre-referendum average of 164,000 a year, Reform says, Britain would need an extra £3.3billion every year on infrastructure alone.

The party claims that would mean some £33billion over a decade. Mr Farage’s party claims taxpayers could also be hit with an extra £2.2billion a year in benefit payments.

It warns the EU project itself has further transformed since the UK’s historic vote to Leave in 2016. Reform says 88% of the 1.17million people who gained EU passports in 2024 came from outside the bloc, mainly from the Middle East and Africa.

Should Mr Burnham surrender and agree to freedom of movement as part of talks with Brussels, then they would have the automatic right to live and work in Britain.

Mr Farage said: “The British people voted to take back control of our borders. Any return to free movement would not only be a betrayal but would spell catastrophe for Britain.

“It would mean higher taxes, masses more pressure on housing, schools and the NHS, plus an open invitation for millions more people to come here and claim benefits. We will never accept it.”

The extraordinary climbdown has left the Government’s Brexit stance in chaos. Speaking to reporters, Mr Burnham vowed he would “never move ahead of the British public when it comes to Brexit”.

Yet by the afternoon, his spokeswoman was desperately rowing back. She said: “So, the Prime Minister isn’t proposing a return to freedom of movement, or any option.”

She added that he was “crucially not leaning either way”. It came days after Mr Burnham told The Sunday Times he wanted an “honest discussion” about free movement.

He is due to meet EU chiefs in November for a long-awaited summit on the country’s future relationship with Europe.