Rachel Reeves should be honest about the damage caused by Brexit: Yorkshire Post Letters

As a former Bank of England economist, Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves is probably at least as well qualified to occupy 11 Downing Street as any Tory who has recently been handed the tenancy.

But the Leeds West MP undermines that credibility writing columns for The Yorkshire Post about how her party can grow the economy - without acknowledging the Conservative-caused catastrophe that’s strangling it.

The one last month lacked even a passing Brexit mention.

Thankfully another Bank of England alumnus, Mark Carney, didn’t show the same reticence recently.

Despite the Labour leadership’s attempts to ignore the damage Brexit is doing to our country, there is now a clear majority for rejoining the European Union. And good reasons to think support will strengthen further.

Labour’s storing up problems for itself by not recognising this now. Instead, it gives succour to Brexit diehards desperate for anything to prop up in print their failed project.

UK firms will diverge from EU standards as little as possible to avoid extra border bureaucracy. Surely then better to be back at the table as soon as possible to help draft them.

From: Peter Packham, Shadwell Lane, Leeds.

Mr King from Thurgoland returned to his theme of viewing Brexit through the prism of a trade deficit (The Yorkshire Post, November 30).

It is strange to have such a narrow view when economists do not view trade deficits as necessarily good or bad. For example, if you buy your groceries from a major supermarket and do not sell goods to that supermarket you will have a trade deficit with them. Is that a problem?

If Mr King is so concerned about the trade deficit he should be more concerned that the UK’s overall trade deficit is increasing. The Institute of Export and International Trade reported in October that the deficit widened in August after it had risen in the three months ending in July to a near all-time high.

As for his assertion that the UK will be well placed after Covid and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the UK is the only economy in the G7 not to have returned to pre-Covid levels and the OECD has forecast that the only country in the G20 that will grow slower over the next two years is, Russia.

Maybe it is not such a good idea to put up trade barriers with your largest export market just to reduce a trade deficit with that market.

JKM Krawiec, Station Road, North Thoresby.

Whilst I strongly believe Brexit was a serious detrimental error for this country it has happened and we must move on. The reality is that we would never regain the advantageous terms we enjoyed as negotiated by Thatcher, Major and Blair. Further reentry would necessitate joining the Euro which would not be to the UK interest.

Thus those advocating return to the EU need to take this into account and should rather argue to make Brexit less detrimental by trying to gain better relationships with our biggest trading partner rather than the hostile environment engendered by the (now discredited) hard line Brexiteers.