EU referendum results were not officially announced by Westminster constituency, so BuzzFeed News has used estimated data from Chris Hanretty, a reader in politics at the University of East Anglia, that can be found here.



While the correlation between the seats and their MPs is obvious, there are some exceptions.

Seven MPs representing Remain seats are now opposed to free movement, for example, among them pro-Corbyn Clive Lewis, the shadow business secretary and MP for Norwich South.

Lewis, who campaigned to remain in the EU then reform it, as part of the Another Europe Is Possible campaign, voiced no specific opinion on free movement before the vote. But he told The Guardian in November that there was a need " to acknowledge that free movement of labour hasn’t worked for a lot of people".

Part of the reason behind the split, according to University of Manchester political science professor Rob Ford, is that Labour is dealing with a new issue while it is "in flux".



“Until recently support for freedom of movement was the position held by the vast majority of MPs as part of support for EU more generally,” he told BuzzFeed News. “So the current situation reflects a party in flux, reacting to a fast-changing environment, and therefore quite noisy.”

Ford said Labour's future appears to be backing an anti–free movement position.

“Opposition to freedom of movement seems more common among MPs believed to have aspirations to post-Corbyn leadership positions in the party,” he said, naming – among others – Caroline Flint, Tom Watson, Lisa Nandy, Yvette Cooper, Angela Rayner, Keir Starmer, Gloria de Piero, and Clive Lewis, all of whom have been touted as leadership material and are against free movement.

He added: “It is particularly notable that of the seven MPs representing Remain seats who are now opposed to free movement, five are people thought of as potential post-Corbyn leading lights – Starmer, [Chuka] Umunna, [Rachel] Reeves, [Hilary] Benn, and Lewis.

“So, if I had to guess, the emerging pattern of support reflects a mix of local responsiveness and national-level ambition. And the latter reflects an awareness that unreformed freedom of movement is a) not very popular with the electorate...or the segments Labour needs to win and retain in particular, and b) is probably not going to survive the Brexit process given Theresa May's statements so far.

"So, if you are a Labour MP representing a Leave-voting seat, or you want to position yourself for a post-Brexit, post-Corbyn politics, support for reform to freedom of movement makes a lot of sense.

"It seems reform to free movement is seen by many ambitious Labour MPs as the future direction of travel."

Stewart Wood, the Labour peer and former adviser to Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband, said free movement was "still a massive issue for Labour", and symptomatic of wider issues.

"Free movement has become a symbol for something much bigger about the future of the Labour party," he said. "It’s not about Europe any more, it’s just about immigration. Free movement has become a proxy for your view on whether you take immigration seriously or not.

"Politicians end up in a place where they say, 'I know this is wrong, but I have to say it because my voters think it’s right.' It’s a terrible place to be."

One Labour MP agreed, and warned that if Corbyn or any future leader seeks an end to free movement without appearing to believe in that position, more election defeats will follow.

Chuka Umunna, the MP for Streatham, who was one of the first on Labour's benches to come out against free movement, told BuzzFeed News that the party could find some common ground.

“The key issue here is control," he said, "and that’s why fundamentally I don’t believe that there’s a need to be divisive on this issue, because I still think there is a consensus out there for managed migration, but there is a desire for more control."



The all-party parliamentary group for social integration, which Umunna founded, released a report earlier this month that offered recommendations on how to handle immigration post-Brexit. Instead of free movement, it called for a more managed and devolved system, with regions agreeing to grant a number of visas depending on the amount and type of labour they require.

Another suggestion came from two Labour MPs this month. Stephen Kinnock and Emma Reynolds have drawn up plans for a two-tier immigration system from the EU that would make migration of high-skilled EU workers easier than for their low-skilled and semi-skilled counterparts.