Major parties ignoring damage done by Brexit

Jas Olak, Vice Chair, Leeds for Europe, Roundhay, Leeds.

I’ve expressed exasperation before with how the Labour leadership avoids the topic of our departure from the European Union. Leeds for Europe isn’t party political but – being pragmatic – a likely Labour government offers the only serious prospect of seeing the damage of a failed Brexit undone in the foreseeable future.

Labour’s avoidance of this issue is nowhere starker than in the columns that Shadow Chancellor and Leeds West MP Rachel Reeves writes for you; her party thinks it can grow the British economy – but any mention of the cause of an estimated four to six per hit to UK GDP is usually absent.

When Brexit is mentioned, apparently there’s ‘no case’ for rejoining the EU or European Single

Market. Yet evidence of the harm being done to Britain by leaving says otherwise.

It makes the Labour frontbench look out of touch with its grassroots. Eighty-four per cent of 2019 Labour voters say Brexit was a mistake (YouGov, February 14-15). But that’s a national poll. More importantly, what about in Yorkshire itself?

Former Labour communications director Alastair Campbell provides the answer on the popular ‘The Rest Is Politics’ podcast he cohosts with ex-Conservative Cabinet minister Rory Stewart.

Mr Campbell says: “I was in Yorkshire last week. I did three fundraisers for Labour candidates – in Leeds, in neighbouring constituencies to Rachel Reeves – with party members and party supporters. Do you know what the single most raised issue they wanted to hear about from Labour? The European Union – Brexit.”

It’s probably not just Labour politicians in Westminster who might be out of touch with the views and feelings of their supporters on the ground.

Liberal Democrat leader

Sir Ed Davey says voters feel “taken for granted by Labour locally” (Lib Dems say time is running out for Sunak as they target Tory council seats, The Yorkshire Post, March 21).

But you rarely hear from Lib Dem politicians about Brexit, either. Even though their 2019 voters are even more likely (87 per cent) than Labour ones to think it was a mistake, says YouGov.

Peter Packham, Shadwell Lane, Leeds.

I read with interest that the cost of a UK passport is due to increase in April (Passport fees to rise next month, The Yorkshire Post, March 21). This increase in fees is actually half of a double whammy, the other half caused by…you’ve guessed it… Brexit.

Since the United Kingdom voted to leave the EU in 2016, the strength of the UK passport has been falling.

On January 4, 2024, the Daily Mirror reported that the UK passport was now rated at 22nd in the Arton Capital Passport Index (a measure of how many countries a passport holder can visit with and without visas), a drop from third in 2014.

The UK passport now sits behind countries such as France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Ireland.

So, we are going to be asked to pay more for something that is worth less. Which, I would suggest, is Brexit in a nutshell.