Wakey, wakey Brexit convert Sir Keir - you should see this

The survey of 502 UK business leaders, undertaken by Censuswide on behalf of specialist research and development tax adviser ForrestBrown, showed the policy commitment from Labour that would be most valued by respondents is “making the UK’s relationship with the EU work better for business”.

The proportion of business leaders flagging this as the key policy commitment they want most from the new Government is 22%. This is significantly ahead of the policies in joint-second place in the most-valued policy commitments league table generated by the survey responses: “stability and certainty in taxation”, and “reforming business rates with a new system of business property taxation”, each flagged by 16% of business leaders.

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​Next, each with 13%, are “increasing investment in clean energy”, and “workforce development e.g. working conditions, youth unemployment”.

Then come “addressing the skills shortage by reforming the immigration points system”, highlighted by 9% of respondents, and “addressing the UK's ageing infrastructure”, flagged by 7%.

Skills shortages are, it is worth noting, in no small part the result of the UK’s hard Brexit.

All of the matters on the wish list communicated by the survey respondents are important for businesses.

And this makes it all the more striking that relations with the European Union come out so far ahead.

This would seem to speak volumes about the damage that has been and is being done to businesses by Brexit.

The survey covered business leaders across a raft of sectors, in architecture, engineering and building; arts and culture; education; finance; healthcare; human resources; information technology and telecoms; legal; manufacturing and utilities; retail, catering and leisure; sales, media and marketing; and travel and transport.

ForrestBrown said: “While the Government ruled out rejoining the EU’s single market and customs union, it has promised to tear down ‘unnecessary barriers to trade’ - which the survey suggests would be welcomed by many business leaders.

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“According to the data, 22% of business leaders thought improving the UK’s relations with the European Union should be the Government’s top priority. This figure rises to 32% for business leaders in the finance sector.”

Some arch-Brexiters might be annoyed as yet another survey shows the problems that the UK’s hard exit from the EU has caused, challenging their bizarrely held beliefs.

That said, you get the impression that many of these individuals are still managing to convince themselves that the hard Brexit was a good thing in spite of the huge amount of evidence to the contrary. Some think it is only a matter of time before the benefits they were promised emerge. However, it is more than eight years since the Brexit referendum. And it is nearly four years since the UK was wrenched out of the European single market by the Boris Johnson administration.

What would be very interesting to know is what Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer thinks, deep down, about the relentless flow of survey results and data highlighting the troubles for the UK economy and businesses caused by the hard Brexit.

Sir Keir, we must remember, has essentially embraced the key parts of this hard Brexit delivered by the Tories.

By ruling out rejoining not only the EU but also the European single market, Sir Keir is for the foreseeable future depriving the UK of the huge benefits of frictionless trade with its biggest trading partner, which it had until the end of 2020.

He is also ensuring there will be no return of the enormous benefit of free movement of people between the UK and European Economic Area.

It is all very well talking warmly about improving relations with the EU.

Warmer words are no doubt an improvement on the hostility to the EU from former Conservative ministers and notably from Mr Johnson’s chief Brexit negotiator and former Scotch Whisky Association boss Lord David Frost.

And any improvement in relations is better than nothing.

However, the cold reality is that what Sir Keir is talking about amounts to mere tinkering around the edges.

He has boxed himself in, with pledges which sadly mean there will be no significant alleviation of the Brexit pain for businesses and the economy, or for households and living standards.

Sir Keir, who has seemed to have had such a keen eye on those “red-wall” voters who backed Mr Johnson and his hard Brexit in the December 2019 general election, has even ruled out rejoining the customs union.

And he has rejected the idea of a youth mobility scheme with the EU.

So, when it comes to the business and economic front, it is important to realise that alleviation of the enormous Brexit damage will not come from Sir Keir’s warmer words to the EU or his attempts at tinkering.

You wonder whether the Prime Minister ever ponders whether he jumped the gun by ruling out even contemplating rejoining the single market.

He was, after all, one of the most eloquent voices arguing against Brexit in late 2019 but has now, when you drill down to the essence of Labour policy on the EU and those demoralising red lines, fully embraced it.

This week’s survey and a plethora of others, as well as the economic data and a welter of expert analysis and comment, show the scale of the damage being done by the hard Brexit.

It should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone that the European issue is identified as the biggest one for businesses in the ForrestBrown poll.

What is more, the survey should make uncomfortable reading not just for the arch-Brexiters but for convert to the cause Sir Keir as the Prime Minister continues to fail to wake up to the enormous importance of European single market membership.