The question is not who leads Labour, it is what the party is prepared to do - Yorkshire Post Letters

Last week’s (May 7) local election results have triggered predictable speculation about Sir Keir Starmer's future. Attention would be better spent elsewhere.

Labour's problem is less its leader than a European policy that satisfies nobody and is politically unsustainable.

A decade since the referendum, none of the promises made to Leave voters have been delivered. Britain isn’t more prosperous; trade has become harder, growth weaker, public finances tighter. Businesses across Yorkshire face needless barriers with our largest trading partner. Young people have lost the freedom to live, work and study across Europe. Our influence has shrunk as global instability has grown.

Events this week may quickly date these words, but the argument holds. Any Labour leader running the same European policy faces the same dead end. No Labour prime minister was ever likely to receive an easy ride from sections of a hostile press. Any successor would enjoy, at best, only a brief honeymoon before facing the same attacks.

Reform's election campaign slogan was ‘Vote Reform, Get Starmer out’ – playing the man, not the ball. A leadership contest would leave Labour’s customs union red line exactly where it is. Neither Labour nor the country would be better off. The question is not who leads. It is what the party is prepared to do.

Labour deserves credit for seeking a more constructive relationship with Europe on trade, energy and security. But modest adjustments are not enough. The red lines around the customs union and single market look economically self-defeating and politically incoherent.

It leaves ministers stranded: unable to pursue the closer relationship Britain needs, yet attracting accusations of betrayal whenever minor cooperation is proposed.

The most practical first step would be to commit to rejoining the customs union, removing barriers causing real harm to businesses right now.

Public opinion has shifted decisively. Polling shows majority support for closer EU ties, and a growing plurality now favour rejoining outright. Labour wouldn’t be dragging a reluctant country somewhere it doesn't want to go - it would be catching up with where much of the country already is.

Reform UK positions itself as the answer to public frustration – which would be extraordinary if it weren't so brazen. Much of its Westminster leadership are former Conservatives directly associated with the Brexit project, after all.

Having helped create the current mess, they rebrand themselves as anti-establishment outsiders. Nowhere is this clearer than in the ongoing scrutiny over the £5m undeclared gift Nigel Farage received from an overseas crypto-investor - a revelation that has left Reform figures struggling to offer a coherent defence.

Brexit was Reform's project. The country is still paying the price. The answer is not another populist promise, but an honest recognition that Britain's future depends on closer cooperation with our European neighbours. Labour doesn’t need to wait for a new leader. It can and should act now.