This is a very important FT intervention. It takes the argument out of the realm of pro-European politics and puts it squarely into economic strategy. The central sentence for me is: “But could Labour be stumbling towards a pro-growth policy that actually shifts the dial?” And the answer Sam Fleming effectively gives is yes: European reintegration.

Brexit Britain is the world’s first ever example of a country applying sanctions to itself. Those who believe in it claim we haven’t had Brexit yet bc it’s not doing as they dreamed it would. But Brexit is doing just as remainers said it would. Erecting trade barriers is self harming.

The rewriting of 2016 needs challenging. ❌ The referendum ballot did NOT ask: “Should Britain end freedom of movement?” It asked whether Britain should remain in or leave the EU. Nothing about leaving the Single Market. Nothing about the customs union. Nothing about ending free movement. And during the referendum prominent Brexit campaigners openly cited Norway and Switzerland as models for Britain outside the EU. 🇳🇴 Norway is in the Single Market and accepts free movement. The Leave coalition contained several completely different versions of Brexit. The public was never asked to choose between them. So it is simply not accurate to retrospectively turn 17.4 million Leave votes into 17.4 million votes specifically against free movement. That interpretation came afterwards. And if Britain is now deciding what relationship it wants with Europe, voters are perfectly entitled to decide again with the actual choices made explicit.

🚨 🚩 The Brexit earthquake didn’t begin in 2016, it began in 1964. That year, Britain 🇬🇧 scrapped Resale Price Maintenance. A huge political earthquake that everyone has forgotten about. It was sold as giving consumers lower prices. What it actually did was shift power dramatically from manufacturers and small producers to giant retailers. Tesco and the supermarkets won big. Independent shops, high streets, and primary producers (including farmers) began a long, slow decline. This was the moment we started prioritising cheap imports and corporate scale over domestic production and resilience. The foundations of today’s broken food system, where farmers are squeezed and we rely on fragile global supply chains were laid then. Brexit was the latest tremor in a 60-year earthquake. The end of high streets and the hollowing out of British industry didn’t start with Brexit or EU membership, it began in 1964 when Resale Price Maintenance was scrapped. That decision empowered giant retailers to undercut everyone else, shifted power away from producers, and encouraged reliance on cheap imports. We lost the ability to protect and nurture our own manufacturing and farming base. This resulted in a consumer economy that worked while we were rich but left us vulnerable when times got harder. We don’t make enough, we can’t afford to make enough, and food security is now at risk.

⏰ For six years since Britain left the Single Market, I’ve been waiting for a Prime Minister prepared to explain why we may have to go back in. Because of food security, energy security, investment, supply chains and national resilience. You cannot build a serious food-security strategy while putting permanent barriers between Britain and its largest neighbouring food market. You cannot talk about sovereignty while becoming more dependent on fragile global supply chains for food, fuel and fertiliser. And you cannot repair Brexit properly while refusing even to discuss the obligations that come with deeper European integration. At last we have a Prime Minister @andyburnham prepared to start giving the country some of the hard truths 👏 This conversation is long overdue.