We want a vote – but not a rerun

OUR ComRes poll today could not be clearer – Britain means Brexit.

If the 2016 referendum was rerun tomorrow, the result would be much the same. The majority of voters still want out of the EU.

Leading Remainers such as Tony Blair think this decision can be reversed, that Brexit is a great mistake. Few will listen to him. Too many people think he is a great mistake.

Sir John Major also stuck his oar in last week by saying MPs could decide on a second referendum. Our poll is clear on that. Voters do not want one.

It is not for yesterday’s men to try to forge the Britain of tomorrow. It is for today’s political leaders. And Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May have gone further than ever before in setting out their stalls. It can be summarised as a customs union under Labour or no customs union with the Tories.

It is unlikely the EU will accept either proposal as each now stands, but it’s a move in the right direction.

Our poll found that one in five voters think Mrs May should call a General Election to decide who negotiates Brexit.

As so often in the past the hold-up on the road to the future is the Irish question.

It is agreed in both London and Brussels that an open Irish border is essential to maintain peace.

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier says that can be achieved by dumping the border in the Irish Sea and making Northern Ireland subject to EU not UK law.

That’s a non-starter as it would fire the starting gun on civil war.

Mrs May seems to think a frictionless border can be created by a combination of untried technology and by asking nicely if smugglers would mind staying away. We need more detail, but that does not sound promising.

That leaves Mr Corbyn’s customs union. It would certainly answer the Irish question.

And as it would apply to the whole of the UK, business likes it.

But the Labour leader is being overly optimistic to imagine it would not restrict free trade deals with the rest of the world.

We applaud both Mr Corbyn and Mrs May for taking a few paces forward.

But it may yet take a General Election to decide whose footsteps we follow.