Brexit is a flop, and the voters know it. So why can’t Labour call for a closer bond with Europe?

theguardian.com:

The idea ought to be too obvious to need repeating. But Labour has been known to ignore the inconvenient truths of economic management. So Keir Starmer was right to assert, in his speech to the Liverpool Labour party, that the overwhelming priority of the government he leads will be sustained economic growth. Without it, Labour would be able to finance few, if any, of its proposed reforms. What is more, the optimism that accompanies economic growth is essential to the promotion of greater economic equality – the socialist aspiration that dare not speak its name.

Yet three weeks before the Liverpool speech, Sir Keir used an address to the Centre for European Reform to reject categorically the suggestion that a Labour government should attempt to negotiate some form of customs union with the single market – a prospect of economic expansion so exciting that even the announcement that talks were being considered would stimulate a sudden surge in capital investment.

Sir Keir does not suggest that a new Labour government should or would end all or any of its residual bilateral agreements with Europe. And I do not underestimate the importance of maintaining the mutual recognition of veterinary qualifications. But as a stimulus to economic growth, it hardly compares with access to the 450 million consumers in the world’s largest single market – a prospect that he seems willing to abandon for the strange reason that “you cannot win back the trust of those who have lost faith in politics if you are constantly focusing on arguments of the past”.

In fact, inconsistency does far more damage to political reputations than the stubborn refusal to abandon long-held convictions. Labour pronounced Brexit wrong in principle one year and