Labour risks being outmanoeuvred on Brexit by other parties - Yorkshire Post Letters

The Labour Party leaves itself open to seeing its weak stance on Brexit ridiculed when Rachel Reeves talks of wanting to “remove stubborn obstacles” from business (Labour ready to partner with business to beat UK woes, says Starmer – The Yorkshire Post, December 9).

Because Brexit is by far Britain’s biggest business obstacle – but Labour keeps avoiding talking about it.

When they are forced to face the issue, leader Sir Keir Starmer makes the palpably false claim that there is “no case” for rejoining, or even negotiating non-member Single Market and Customs Union access.

Shadow Chancellor and Leeds West MP Ms Reeves told the party’s recent get-together with business leaders: “Think, then, what we could achieve together if we remove …obstacles …(creating) a more prosperous and more dynamic Britain.”

Many do think about that, Ms Reeves, including many 2016 Leave voters who’ve seen through the Brexiters’ lies and have now come to the view that it was a mistake leaving the European Union.

Brexit has made things needlessly difficult for British firms and has made households worse off by compounding the cost-of-living crisis. Reversing it ought to be an essential part of Labour’s “more prosperous and more dynamic Britain”.

Seventy-eight per cent of Labour supporters agree that it was a mistake leaving (YouGov, 6-7 Dec).

Little wonder then that the Scottish National Party’s Stephen Flynn saw an opportunity to highlight, at PMQs, the lack of difference between the Labour leadership and the Conservatives on Brexit (New Westminster leader of SNP takes swipe at Labour in his first speech, The Yorkshire Post, December 8).

Recent talk of a new “Swiss-style” EU trade agreement might have just been a bit of kite-flying from Rishi Sunak or Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to see how far their MPs might let him go to mitigate Boris Johnson’s catastrophic “oven-ready” deal, and it may lead to nothing for now.

But it wouldn’t take much for Labour to be outmanoeuvred by other parties if it maintains its current timid approach to Brexit.