Brexit hard truths for Labour remain – The Yorkshire Post says

Time is running out for Boris Johnson and the Government to strike a deal with the European Union which is acceptable to an increasingly fragmented Tory party in Parliament.

Meanwhile Sir Keir Starmer’s enthusiasm, as Shadow Brexit Secretary, for a second referendum prior to the last election is now blamed by some of his former Shadow Cabinet colleagues for handing Mr Johnson a 80-seat majority.

They include Hemsworth MP Jon Trickett who is among those to have broken ranks and said Labour got it so wrong that it owes an apology to those working class Leave voters who abandoned the party last December in such numbers.

Yet while Sir Keir, now Labour leader in succession to Jeremy Corbyn, has previously begun to acknowledge this, it is clear he has much to do to win back the trust of voters in Yorkshire and the North who have already noted that he rarely raises the issue of Brexit at Prime Minister’s Questions because of its lingering toxicity.

That means Sir Keir – lockdowns permitting – spending more time with them to actually understand why people previously apathetic towards elections, and suspicious of politicians, felt galvanised to cast their votes in such large numbers in the EU referendum (with the Tories and Labour both promising to respect the outcome).

If not, Labour will be even more reliant on an implosion of public support for Boris Johnson to have any chance of coming close to returning to power at the next election or beyond.

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