Labour politician Andy Burnham is becoming “a paler version of Nigel Farage”, a leading Tory MP has claimed.

Ken Clarke made the comments amid growing backlash to Mr Burnham’s recent criticism of immigration. The former Labour leadership candidate said in a House of Commons speech last week that Labour’s position of supporting free movement of people is “undermining the cohesion of the UK”.

Mr Burnham told MPs that places such as Greater Manchester “continue to take in the vast majority of the country’s asylum seekers and refugees and largely they do so without any strife or difficulty. I don’t want to hear anyone claim that people in places like Leigh that voted to leave are in any way xenophobic or racist.

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“They are welcoming, generous people but they also want fairness and they don’t think it’s fair that the country’s least well-off communities should experience pressure on wages, on housing, on public services… without any help to manage it.”

Mr Burnham, who is MP for Leigh, stood by his comments, today telling Sky News: “I believe we’ve got to have a system that is more linked to people coming to fill a specific job in the labour market rather than speculative free movement, which has actually caused some difficult challenges in parts of Greater Manchester. We’ve seen downward pressure on wages.”

Appearing in an interview on Sky News after Mr Burnham, Mr Clarke expressed distaste at the Labour MP’s comments, saying he did not understand immigration unlike Foreign Secretary Boris Johson.

Mr Clarke said: “Unlike Andy, going on about free movement of labour, sounding a bit like a paler version of Nigel Farage, Boris has never been anti-immigrant. Boris does realise that the economic interests of Britain are helped if we have free access to the biggest open market in the world.”

Mr Burnham’s comments have also provoked a backlash from within his own party, with Lord Spencer Livermore warning Labour politicians should not indulge “the dangerous fantasy” that the UK is besieged by immigration through “extreme” pronouncements. He told The Guardian: “It just feels like the direction of travel at the moment is all in one direction, and Labour is lurching too far towards an anti-immigration position that hasn’t necessarily been thought through.”

An apparent move towards anti-immigration rhetoric by some in the left has been linked to the recent surge in support for Ukip and anti-EU sentiment.

Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott appeared to later contradict Mr Burnham’s comments, expressing her support for freedom of movement as part of Brexit negotiations. She said: “Access to the single market and freedom of movement are inextricably linked and it would be wrong, and the Labour party has said this over and over again, it would be wrong to put the economy anything other than first.

“There’s going to be negotiation, but it’s misleading to suggest to people, as some people do, that we can access to the single market and just dump freedom of movement.”

Shape Created with Sketch. Nobel winner slates Britain's 'stupid' immigration reforms Show all 8 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. Nobel winner slates Britain's 'stupid' immigration reforms 1/8 04-nobelwinner1-gt.jpg Prof Sir Andre Geim: Russian-born, he now holds dual British and Dutch nationality. In 2005, he and his team isolated graphene, a one-atom-thick carbon material which is 200 times stronger than steel and several times tougher than diamond, winning him the Nobel Prize for Physics. It can hold a charge similar to a battery – when charged for two to three seconds it powers a small light for five minutes. Getty Images 2/8 04-nobelwinner2.jpg Nadir Lalani: A Tanzania-born Pakistani who came to the UK in 1973 with very little money to his name. He opened a convenience store before founding the chain of 99p stores in 2001, the first in Holloway, north London, which has now expanded to 200 shops across the country. 3/8 04-nobelwinner3.jpg Levi Roots: Born Keith Graham, he came to the UK with his Jamaican parents at the age of five. Roots, 54, secured £50,000 investment for his Reggae Reggae Sauce from TV’s Dragons’ Den reality show. The sauce, and other lines, are now in supermarkets and Roots has made a £30m fortune. 4/8 04-nobelwinner4-gt.jpg Margaret Hodge: Born in Egypt to Jewish émigré parents, she arrived in the UK at the age of five. Despite having little money, her father started a steel company, Stemcor, which is now the sixth-largest UK company in private ownership. She is the Labour MP for Barking, a former minister, and chairman of the Public Accounts Committee. Getty Images 5/8 04-nobelwinner5-bbc.jpg James Caan: Born in Pakistan in 1960, the son of Bangladeshi parents, he came to the UK when he was aged two. His father had little money and no job but started a clothing company. The young Caan started his own recruitment company and later founded the venture capitalist firm. Best known from BBC TV’s Dragons’ Den. BBC 6/8 04-nobelwinner6-AFPgt.jpg Sir Partha Dasgupta: Born in Bangladesh, Sir Partha was educated at Cambridge in the 1960s but earned less than the minimum pay requirement (in today’s prices) after graduating. He is now emeritus professor of economics at Cambridge and a fellow of the Royal Society. Knighted in 2002 for services to economics. AFP/Getty Images 7/8 04-nobelwinner7.jpg Rajesh Agrawal: Born in India, he was earning £65 a month before coming to the UK in 2001 at the age of 24 with £200 in his back pocket. He founded the independent foreign exchange firm RationalFX in a small office in Brighton. The company had a turnover last year of £474m. 8/8 04-nobelwinner8-AFPgt.jpg Prof Richard Portes: US-born academic who was appointed a fellow at Balliol College, Oxford, in the 1960s, earning £22,000 in today’s terms. Founded the Centre for Economic Policy Research in 1983, is now professor of Economics at London Business School and a fellow of the British Academy. AFP/Getty Images 1/8 04-nobelwinner1-gt.jpg Prof Sir Andre Geim: Russian-born, he now holds dual British and Dutch nationality. In 2005, he and his team isolated graphene, a one-atom-thick carbon material which is 200 times stronger than steel and several times tougher than diamond, winning him the Nobel Prize for Physics. It can hold a charge similar to a battery – when charged for two to three seconds it powers a small light for five minutes. Getty Images 2/8 04-nobelwinner2.jpg Nadir Lalani: A Tanzania-born Pakistani who came to the UK in 1973 with very little money to his name. He opened a convenience store before founding the chain of 99p stores in 2001, the first in Holloway, north London, which has now expanded to 200 shops across the country. 3/8 04-nobelwinner3.jpg Levi Roots: Born Keith Graham, he came to the UK with his Jamaican parents at the age of five. Roots, 54, secured £50,000 investment for his Reggae Reggae Sauce from TV’s Dragons’ Den reality show. The sauce, and other lines, are now in supermarkets and Roots has made a £30m fortune. 4/8 04-nobelwinner4-gt.jpg Margaret Hodge: Born in Egypt to Jewish émigré parents, she arrived in the UK at the age of five. Despite having little money, her father started a steel company, Stemcor, which is now the sixth-largest UK company in private ownership. She is the Labour MP for Barking, a former minister, and chairman of the Public Accounts Committee. Getty Images 5/8 04-nobelwinner5-bbc.jpg James Caan: Born in Pakistan in 1960, the son of Bangladeshi parents, he came to the UK when he was aged two. His father had little money and no job but started a clothing company. The young Caan started his own recruitment company and later founded the venture capitalist firm. Best known from BBC TV’s Dragons’ Den. BBC 6/8 04-nobelwinner6-AFPgt.jpg Sir Partha Dasgupta: Born in Bangladesh, Sir Partha was educated at Cambridge in the 1960s but earned less than the minimum pay requirement (in today’s prices) after graduating. He is now emeritus professor of economics at Cambridge and a fellow of the Royal Society. Knighted in 2002 for services to economics. AFP/Getty Images 7/8 04-nobelwinner7.jpg Rajesh Agrawal: Born in India, he was earning £65 a month before coming to the UK in 2001 at the age of 24 with £200 in his back pocket. He founded the independent foreign exchange firm RationalFX in a small office in Brighton. The company had a turnover last year of £474m. 8/8 04-nobelwinner8-AFPgt.jpg Prof Richard Portes: US-born academic who was appointed a fellow at Balliol College, Oxford, in the 1960s, earning £22,000 in today’s terms. Founded the Centre for Economic Policy Research in 1983, is now professor of Economics at London Business School and a fellow of the British Academy. AFP/Getty Images

Following his election as new Ukip leader, Paul Nuttall has said the party’s strategy is to “replace Labour” by appealing to working-class voters, especially in the north of England who would have traditionally supported the party. Addressing supporters during a victory speech, Mr Nuttall said: “My ambition is not insignificant – I want to replace the Labour Party and make Ukip the patriotic voice of working people.”

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