From: Peter Packham, Chair, Leeds for Europe, Roundhay, Leeds.

It’s hard to say when the Starmer “make Brexit work” strategy died. It was certainly dead by the time Sir Keir left Downing Street.

But there’s no doubt when Sir Keir’s successor as Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, buried it: last week (September 1), when he told the Commons that Brexit had “compounded the damage”, ushering in “a decade of low growth and stalled regeneration”.

Until then, it had been notable how little Mr Burnham had mentioned Brexit - not the sole cause of problems his government must tackle, but often making them worse and harder to resolve.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham departs 10 Downing Street, London, to attend his first Prime Minister's Questions. PIC: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

placeholder image — Prime Minister Andy Burnham departs 10 Downing Street, London, to attend his first Prime Minister's Questions. PIC: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

Quite an admission, then, from a Prime Minister who had inherited a Labour policy of accepting Brexit and making the best of it. Mr Burnham says that “change begins with honesty” and that Britain must be “blunt about what went wrong”.

That was underlined two days later (PM eyes EU deals on farming, steel - front page, September 3), as Mr Burnham made clear two industries vital to Britain’s economic well-being need better access to the European market than Boris Johnson’s Trade and Cooperation Agreement provides.

Mr Burnham has warned that the EU's ‘Made in Europe’ policy could create problems for British industry - another consequence of being outside the European economic framework and decision-making; ‘take back control’ a misnomer.

After telling European Council president António Costa that Britain needed to be “bolder” about getting closer to the EU, the message was reinforced last week when he welcomed Emmanuel Macron to Downing Street, describing France as our “nearest neighbour and close friend” and saying collaboration could strengthen the UK-EU relationship.

I can’t recall so much positive noise from our Government about the EU over such a short period in the 10 years since the referendum.

Mr Burnham isn’t yet proposing that Britain rejoin the EU. But I welcome what looks like a significant change in political direction.

If Brexit has contributed to a decade of low growth, and closer cooperation with Europe is now necessary to protect British farming and steel, surely the Government should reconsider its insistence on ruling out the Single Market and Customs Union.

There’s no shame in this government recognising Brexit has failed. It can’t be made to work. Mr Burnham wants to be “honest about what went wrong”.

Can he be equally honest with us about the best way to put things right?