Sir Keir Starmer says he is “absolutely clear” the UK Government wants to “reset” relations with the European Union.

However, those who know the scale of the economic damage from the UK’s hard Brexit and what has caused this and continues to do so could be forgiven for thinking his musings on the subject are anything but “clear”.

This week, he focused on saying two things that were most incongruous, almost in the same breath.

He talked about the “reset” of relations with the European Union, and in so doing boosting trade and economic growth.

But he also said this “reset” did not mean reversing Brexit.

He talked about his wish to “turn a corner on Brexit”, but what is that supposed to mean?

The situation might well be “absolutely clear” in the mind of Sir Keir. However, to many other people, it will be as clear as mud.

Having said that, it is not difficult at all to detangle Sir Keir’s rhetoric from the reality of the situation, to determine whether this big talk will lead to anything which makes a big difference in alleviating the colossal damage from Brexit.

This hard Brexit damage arises from two things.

Firstly, there is the loss of free movement of people between the UK and European Economic Area, which has reduced to an enormous extent the country’s potential for economic growth. This loss has fuelled greatly the UK’s skills and labour shortages crisis.

Sir Keir StarmerSir Keir Starmer (Image: PA)

Secondly, the UK lost frictionless trade with its biggest trading partner, the European Economic Area, as a result of the Boris Johnson Brexit.

So the crux of what is going on here boils down to the simple question of whether or not Sir Keir is planning to regain these things through rejoining the European single market.

The answer, of course, is that he is not.

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It is, at the margin, a relief that Sir Keir is adopting a more friendly tone to the EU, after the dismal behaviour of Mr Johnson and various former senior Tory ministers including chief Brexit negotiator Lord David Frost in their dealings with the bloc.

Sir Keir’s warm talk about Europe this week has coincided with a visit to Berlin to have talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on a new cooperation agreement between the two nations, and a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris.

This is all fine and well, but we need to be in no doubt about the limitations of such friendlier tones and efforts at closer cooperation.

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We should bear in mind that Sir Keir reiterated this week that the UK has no plans for a youth mobility scheme with the EU. Such a scheme would at least have offered the young people whose lives have been so blighted by Brexit a bit of hope.

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Labour appears to remain terrified on the topic of free movement of people between the UK and EEA, especially given immigration appeared to play such a big part in the huge support for Brexit and Mr Johnson from traditional Labour voters back in 2019.

Sir Keir has adopted the most curious of positions.

He talks about a closer relationship with the EU. And rejoining the European single market would provide a huge boost to UK growth.

What is more, Sir Keir reiterated in his speech at Downing Street on Tuesday Labour’s claim that economic growth is its “number one” priority.

Yet he will not even contemplate rejoining the single market, which would provide that enormous fillip to growth.

Labour would rather dress up what amounts to mere tinkering relative to the huge Brexit losses, in terms of portraying the new Government’s supposedly big ideas of a national wealth fund and GB Energy as things that are going to be somehow game-changing on the economy. They are not.

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It is worth emphasising again the scale of the Brexit damage in the context of Sir Keir’s dancing around on the European issue, making a big noise about closer relationships while at the same time ruling out doing anything meaningful about it.

Office for Budget Responsibility chairman Richard Hughes said in spring last year of Brexit’s effect: “We think that in the long run it reduces our overall output by around 4% compared with had we remained in the EU.”

(Image: PA)

Centre for European Reform associate fellow John Springford estimates Brexit had by the second quarter of 2022 reduced UK gross domestic product by 5.5%.

These are huge percentages.

Imagine the boost to living standards if Brexit were reversed, even not wholly by rejoining the EU but in very large part by going back into the European single market. Of course, there would have to be a will in the first place to rejoin the single market, which there is obviously not from Labour.

Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown, said on Wednesday: “The PM’s whistle-stop tour around Europe, to turn a corner on Brexit, might bring a sprinkle more positivity for exporters, but it’s unlikely to yield any immediate breakthroughs in terms of trade.”

This seems like a fair enough assessment.

Furthermore, it is also difficult to see any much likelihood of significant “breakthroughs” over the medium term, given that Labour has ruled out rejoining the EU, the single market, or even the customs union.

(Image: PA)

And remember that Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner declared in the run-up to the July 4 General Election that Labour would never take the UK back into the EU or single market. That really was quite the statement, and obviously not for any positive reason.

Scottish Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes raised the issue of Brexit this week as official figures showed the economy north of the Border achieved 0.6% quarter-on-quarter growth in the three months to June in difficult conditions.

Ms Forbes said: “Figures for the second quarter follow the trend seen across the UK and I am optimistic about Scotland’s medium and long term economic prospects, despite the restrictions of the devolution settlement and the continuing challenges posed by Brexit. We look forward to working with the UK Government to address these challenges.”

Sadly however, when it comes to Labour and Sir Keir, there does not appear to be much at all to look forward to on the Brexit front.