Argument for rejoining the EU has been strengthened - Yorkshire Post Letters

Dr OJ Sykes noted (The Yorkshire Post, June 28) that you’ve got a “tenacious …small band” of Brexit apologists who regularly write; few keener than William Rees and Peter Auty, judging by their speedy response (July 1) to Dr Sykes’s letter.

But such contributions look increasingly desperate, with even Nigel Farage admitting: “Brexit has failed.”

Most people – including an increasing proportion of those who voted Leave in 2016 – now want to rejoin the European Union.

The shrinking, but still vociferous, band of Brexit advocates can only now hope to delay the inevitable, but meanwhile continue to take a perverse relish in watching further, avoidable harm being inflicted on our country and its citizens.

Recent polling shows that it’s typically only among the over-65s that you can still find majority support for Brexit.

Even here, the numbers are no longer decisive. Many in this age group have come to agree with younger cohorts about what’s good for Britain - and the future of their children and grandchildren.

Have we “noticed the economic difficulties that many EU countries are currently facing”, asks Mr Rees. We have.

But has he noticed things are worse here than in many such countries – and wondered why? In that day’s paper, you report that eurozone inflation is falling sharply (page 22), whilst here in the UK prices continue to surge ever higher (page 7).

You even had Shadow Chancellor and Leeds West MP Rachel Reeves (page 13) speaking out about Brexit at last – saying that it has been “botched”: “(The Government) left us with an arrangement that has added red tape at our ports, made supply chains slower and pushed up prices.”

Usually, Ms Reeves and other Labour frontbenchers avoid mentioning Brexit where possible. She still rules out rejoining – or even compromising on non-member Single Market and Customs Union access.

But with 86 per cent of 2019 Labour voters agreeing that leaving the EU was a mistake (YouGov, June 27-28), how much longer until the main opposition party starts to better reflect what most of us want?