Labour and Leeds MP Rachel Reeves should be making hay on Brexit - Yorkshire Post Letters

SHADOW Chancellor and Leeds West MP Rachel Reeves says her party will promote domestic manufacturing and give more public sector contracts to British firms (The Yorkshire Post, July 3).

That’s fine but neglecting to mention Europe looks like a deliberate omission. If Labour wants to sell itself as an ambitious but pragmatic alternative to this Brexit Government, then it needs to get comfortable talking about Europe and renegotiating Boris Johnson’s disastrous deal.

Brexit isn’t working for Britain but does provide the main opposition party with a multitude of potential lines on which to challenge Mr Johnson and his Ministers. Not least is the fact that for large, vital sectors of our economy – finance and creative, for example – it was effectively a No-Deal Brexit, anyway.

The current Chancellor, Richmond MP Rishi Sunak, has reportedly abandoned securing an EU financial services deal and – despite being tasked by Boris Johnson to “fix it” – Brexit negotiator Lord Frost says the issue of visa-free travel for musicians isn’t his problem.

It’s haymaking season for Britain’s farmers – and should be for the main opposition party on Brexit and Europe, too.

From: Tony Galbraith, Brough.

I WOULD like to draw to your readers’ attention two numbers from last week’s news.

The first number is 6.1 million. That is the number of EU citizens who had applied for settled status in the UK by June 30 deadline. The second number is 75. That is the number of people who voted for Andrew Smith, the Rejoin EU candidate, in the Batley and Spen by-election.

It seems that living in Brexit Britain is not too bad after all.

From: Terry Palmer, Hoyland.

Is SIR Keir Starmer for real or what? He tells us all that Labour are back after holding on in the Batley and Spen by-election.

Sir Keir, you won there last time by around 3,500 votes. This time you held the seat by just over 300 votes yet you say you are back – back where? You now have the same number of seats prior to the Batley and Spen by-election.

What happens at the next general election will confirm whether Labour are back or not.