‘Let’s think about the elephant in the room,’ says Gaywood North Bank borough councillor

It’s Liberal Democrat Rob Colwell’s turn to write our weekly Friday Politics column, and he discusses Brexit…

Let’s think about the elephant in the room. I know you’d rather not, but it’s now over eight years since the 2016 referendum and nearly five years since we left the European Union. So it’s time to think again about Brexit. Or more precisely, since Brexit has now happened, it’s time to think about our future relationship with the European Union.

Let me explain why this matters. Over the last few years I’ve spent a lot of my time talking to residents about failing public services and the various other consequences of our flagging economy for us here in West Norfolk. Whether it be the appalling state of the NHS, inadequate social care provision, flooding, sewage leaks, affordable housing provision or the impact of the cost of living crisis on family budgets we all know these things matter.

During the Brexit referendum, the prominent Leave campaigners argued that leaving the European Union would solve all our economic ills. The sunny uplands would soon arrive. We all remember the famous promises about the NHS on the side of the bus. Well, it didn’t quite work out like that, did it? We now know that the British economy has taken an enormous hit from leaving the two main economic institutions of the European Union, the customs union and the single market. A recent estimate by the leading investment bank Goldman Sachs put the hit at between 4% and 8% of national output.

Even on the emotive subject of controlling net immigration, Brexit has been an unmitigated failure. Net immigration is now much higher than before we left the EU. Instead of free movement within the EU as part of the European single market, which also meant we could live, work and travel freely anywhere in Europe, we now have far higher levels of net immigration from the rest of the world. We have replaced European free movement with a complex and bureaucratic system of entry visas which are hard to navigate for both British businesses and individuals.

According to opinion polls, most people in Britain now recognise that leaving the European Union was a serious mistake, with support for restoring closer links with the rest of Europe highest amongst younger voters. So what can we do about it?

Liberal Democrats have the clear long-term aim of rejoining the EU but we recognise that this cannot happen overnight. We must begin by rebuilding mutual trust through modest first steps such as agreeing to a reciprocal Youth Partnership for people under 35 and rejoining the Erasmus Plus scheme. Beyond that, the UK should be actively exploring with the EU ways in which it would be possible to reintegrate with the European Single Market.

Will the new Labour government follow this advice? Many of us had hoped so. But at the moment the signs are not promising. They appear to have rejected both the EU’s offer of a Youth Partnership and rejoining Erasmus Plus. And they have pledged not to rejoin the economic institutions of the European Union such as the single market or the customs union. At present, they seem to be as keen on hard Brexit as the Tories who preceded them in government.

The problem for Labour is that they are now responsible for the economy. Without raising economic growth their grand vision for Britain will fail. And if it fails it will not be long until they will become as unpopular as their Tory predecessors. They might not want to think about the elephant in the room, but eventually, they simply won’t have any choice.