Burnham calls for ‘safe routes’ then agrees with Farage in muddled interview

In an interview with BBC Radio Manchester, Andy Burnham has made his thoughts clear on the topic of irregular migration. And by ‘clear’, we once again mean ‘less clear’.

The degree to which he was unclear is obvious in the fact that people are saying he agrees with Nigel Farage despite the fact that he also called for the creation of “safe routes”:

🚨BREAKING | Burnham says he "agrees" with Farage on migration, pledging to detain + deport refugees

"We need to make greater use of detention … I do agree with what Farage is saying", said Burnham, adding Britain needs to "get back to a sense of order”

(Via @NovaraMedia) pic.twitter.com/WzYbaV3FZp

— Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️‍⚧️ (@LeftieStats) June 10, 2026

The UK desperately needs to introduce safe routes, as we’ve argued for some time. In now-trademark fashion, however, Burnham has given us just as much to worry about as to hope for.

Burnham bluster

Firstly, we should cover what safe routes are. As Amnesty explained:

A ‘safe and legal route’ to the UK means a journey that is formally approved by the UK Government. That generally means that Home Office immigration rules permit the journey without a visa; or the journey is made with a visa granted for the purpose of making it.

Amnesty additionally lays out the following four ‘truths’:

• TRUTH 1: The Government allows nobody to make a claim for asylum in the UK unless they are physically present in the UK
• TRUTH 2: It is impossible to come to the UK for the purpose of seeking asylum in any way permitted by the Government’s immigration rules
• TRUTH 3: The Government makes almost no safe and legal route available to any refugee other than someone from Ukraine
• TRUTH 4: Seeking asylum from persecution is lawful – refugees don’t need anyone’s permission to do so

Refugees can’t claim asylum until they get here, but they also can’t come here to claim asylum (not unless they’re Ukrainian, anyway). In other words, the UK is using its geographical nature as an island get out of our international responsibilities to protect displaced and persecuted people.

Will Burnham fix this?

As usual, we have no idea what he has planned. And as we’ve covered elsewhere:

• Burnham is silent on wealth taxes – not a promising sign from potential PM.
• Andy Burnham’s role with Iain Duncan Smith’s think tank just shows he’s more of the same.
• Burnham WON’T back proportional representation this parliament.
• Shapeshifting Burnham ditches trans rights to panic-grab Reform votes.
• Burnham slammed for saying he won’t renationalise Thames Water.

‘I do agree with Nigel Farage’

Getting to the interview itself, the following section is what people are reacting to (emphasis added):

What I am calling for is the reform of these Home Office contracts. I do agree with what [Nigel] Farage is saying. What we’ve got to do is get back to a sense of order.

There should be safe routes for people. What people don’t want to see is the chaos of the small boat crossings. I think the government is getting some order back into the system but there is definitely more to be done.

It’s not wrong to state that the introduction of safe routes would help end “the chaos of small boat crossings”. As the Green Party wrote in a policy paper on the matter:

If safe routes existed, people would take them. Instead, we have taken away their ability to arrive within permissible routes and thus force them to take more and more dangerous routes. Not only are we causing these risks and ensuring the growth of smuggling networks

The problem with what Burnham said is that the collection of sentences he wrangled together don’t make sense in proximity to one another.

He says ‘I agree with Farage’, and then he says ‘we’ve got get a sense of order’, and then he says ‘there should be safe routes’. This is confusing, because Farage definitely isn’t calling for the creation of safe routes. And if we’re being real, Farage loves the status quo of small boats, because he’s able to capitalise on it politically.

Really, then, who is Burnham trying to appeal to?

Left-wing voters will rightfully recoil at ‘I agree with Nigel Farage’. Some right-wing voters might nod along, but they won’t be nodding when the right-wing commentators start explaining what ‘safe routes’ are. At this point, these voters don’t want anyone coming here – safely or not.

A politician can present a moral and rational case for migration and asylum, or they can fearmonger. Burnham seems to be doing both.

‘Increased detention’

This is the other bit that people are taking Burnham to task over:

It’s this thing about control, isn’t it? It feels like the country isn’t functioning properly, running things properly and the small boats issue completely speaks to that. People want it to be dealt with. We do need to go further.

We need to make greater use of detention so that people who have got no basis for a claim are not actually admitted into the country.

Burnham apparently wants to create safe routes, which would mean asylum seekers are able to enter the country legally. He also wants to detain more asylum seekers – specifically the ones who continue to enter the country irregularly.

So how is he doing the maths on this?

Is he predicting that after we create safe routes, this will immediately be followed by an even greater influx of asylum seekers, and that said asylum seekers will opt to cross by boat despite the existence of safe routes?

Or is he planning to introduce so few safe routes that small boat crossings happen regardless?

Here we go again

As ever with Burnham, it seems like he’s trying to give everyone what they want. In other words, he’s doing radical centrism.

It’s similar to when he hints at nationalisation, but then you read his actual words, and you notice he’s promising “stronger public control” of private utilities – not public ownership.

We do hope he expands the UK’s available safe routes, anyway. We just don’t know which Burnham will show up if he becomes prime minister.

Maybe we need a safe route for the left-leaning version of Burnham to enter Downing Street?

Featured image via Anthony Devlin (Getty Images) / Anthony Devlin (Getty Images) / Carl Court (Getty Images)