Labour can’t make Brexit work

Jon Danzig | 23 October 2025

My poster in October 2024 said the black hole in Britain’s finances was Brexit. Now the Chancellor agrees: Brexit is the cause of many of Britain’s economic problems.

Rachel Reeves has finally drawn a straight line from leaving the EU to the choices in her budget. In an interview with The Guardian, she admitted that the economic hit from Brexit is heavier than official forecasters had previously estimated. That should be a turning point.

Everyone serious warned this would happen. The Office for Budget Responsibility, the Bank of England, and independent institutes have all confirmed with dreary consistency: no net benefits, only damage. Trade friction, lower investment, skills shortages, weaker growth. None of that was unknown.

Yet during years in opposition, Labour made Make Brexit Work its mantra. Over and over, Keir Starmer repeated it – even proclaiming on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show in November 2021: “Make Brexit work. Don’t just say get Brexit done. Make Brexit work!”

Starmer also said there was “no case” for rejoining the EU. He promised fixes at the edges, not a cure. But Brexit can’t work – it never could. If Labour didn’t know that, they should have known. If they did know and pretended otherwise, that is worse. Either way, honesty would have spared us time and pain.

In office, Labour blamed almost everything except Brexit. They pushed through cuts that squeeze millions.

Winter fuel support removed from many pensioners
Taxes that bite harder because the pie is smaller
Services trimmed
Ambitions shrunk

Now Reeves concedes the hole is bigger, and more pain is coming. There is a simpler route to stop the bleeding. Name the cause: It’s Brexit.

Offer a democratic path back – a plan to rejoin our European family. Not overnight, not by decree, but with a mandate, with humility, and with the hard graft of diplomacy at home and abroad. Yes, rejoining requires trust to be rebuilt. It needs a country that says, we got this wrong, we want to come back, we will be a constructive member again.

Europe prefers a strong Britain inside, not a diminished neighbour outside. What Labour offers instead is tinkering: a few closer ties, no membership, no Single Market, no customs union. That is managed decline.

The truth is out now, even in the Treasury. Brexit is the hole that swallows our money, our prospects, our standing.

Stop throwing good policy after bad politics. Give Britain a choice to bin Brexit, to rejoin, to grow.

This may be our last chance for a generation. Labour promised competence and courage. Prove it.

Rafael Behr in The Guardian put it plainly: nothing else has worked – so Starmer and Reeves are finally telling the truth about Brexit.
Related reading: New Labour – this isn’t even true Labour.

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Related video: Keir Starmer’s shifting stances on Brexit and free movement