The elephant in the room has been looming large but Sir Keir Starmer has continued to studiously ignore it.

That elephant, for anyone who has forgotten, is the UK’s hard Brexit.

And its impact on businesses has been highlighted yet again, in two surveys published last week.

Sir Keir seems content, however, to stick with the hard Brexit, in line with his pledge in the run-up to the July 4 General Election that Labour will not take the UK back into the European Union or single market, or even the customs union.

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is a bizarre state of affairs, particularly given we seem set for a miserable Budget from Labour on Wednesday.

The Labour Government has claimed that growth is its number-one priority. However, it has yet to provide any kind of sign that its policies can deliver a meaningful boost to growth.

And, even taking into account the political drivers of Sir Keir’s pro-Brexit stance as he appears at pains to pander to the red-wall voters, it still seems strange that Labour is effectively embracing the colossal damage to growth from the UK’s hard Brexit rather than doing anything about this.

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Sir Keir’s conversion to Brexit does not, obviously, change the simple fact that this folly has been and will continue to be hugely detrimental to a UK economy for which Labour claims to care.

And the enormous effect on businesses is plain from their great desire to see the Brexit pain alleviated.

A 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 Sir Keir’s Government is 22%.

And it is surely even more telling that this is significantly ahead of the desire for the policies in joint-second place in the most-valued 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 of these was flagged by 16% of business leaders.

My column in The Herald last Wednesday, analysing the results of the ForrestBrown survey and their implications, observed: “What business most wants to see from the new Labour Government…should provide much food for thought for those who say Brexit is done.

“That said, thoughtfulness and reflection have appeared to be in very short supply indeed among arch-Brexiters.”

It concluded: “This…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.”

Brexit was also in focus in a survey published by banking group Santander last week.

This showed 31% of UK businesses calling for “support with reducing overseas regulatory requirements post-Brexit, including customs procedures, obtaining appropriate licences for trading and strengthened mutual recognition of professional standards and qualifications across Europe”.

The big problem remains that Labour’s red lines, around not rejoining the EU, the single market or even the customs union, severely limit what Sir Keir will be able to achieve in terms of improving the UK’s relations with the EU.

He has even ruled out a youth mobility scheme with the bloc.

And the simple truth is that warm words will not take the Prime Minister very far in terms of his stated desire to improve relations with the EU.

So it is difficult to conclude other than that Labour has decided, for whatever reason, to fully embrace the hard Brexit damage. The only other conclusion that could be drawn is that Sir Keir and his Cabinet do not understand what Brexit is doing to the UK economy (and society) and how much they have limited themselves in addressing this damage by boxing themselves in with their red lines.

A lack of understanding seems unlikely, however, given how vociferously Sir Keir argued against Brexit in late 2019.

While he has performed a complete u-turn, seemingly for political reasons, surely he must still know the actual effects of Brexit.

After all, he warned of these back in 2019, as did a raft of other experts.

And, as was inevitable given the simplicity of the transmission mechanisms relating to the ending of frictionless trade with the UK’s largest trading partner and the loss of hugely valuable free movement of people between the country and the European Economic Area, the warnings have proved most accurate.

Things have transpired pretty much as experts said they would in the wake of the hard Brexit delivered by the Boris Johnson administration.

Sir Keir continues to talk about making Brexit “work”.

However, even the arch-Brexiters have piped down on their entirely spurious claims about Brexit benefits.

The bill for households and businesses meanwhile continues to rack up in a way that should be plain for all to see.

However, while fretting over the state of the public finances, Labour has eschewed a course of action on the European issue which could dramatically improve growth and tax revenues.