The elephant in the room has been looming large but Sir Keir Starmer has continued to studiously ignore it.

That elephant, for anyone who has forgotten, is the UK’s hard Brexit.

And its impact on businesses has been highlighted yet again, in two surveys published last week.

Sir Keir seems content, however, to stick with the hard Brexit, in line with his pledge in the run-up to the July 4 General Election that Labour will not take the UK back into the European Union or single market, or even the customs union.

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is a bizarre state of affairs, particularly given we seem set for a miserable Budget from Labour on Wednesday.

The Labour Government has claimed that growth is its number-one priority. However, it has yet to provide any kind of sign that its policies can deliver a meaningful boost to growth.

And, even taking into account the political drivers of Sir Keir’s pro-Brexit stance as he appears at pains to pander to the red-wall voters, it still seems strange that Labour is effectively embracing the colossal damage to growth from the UK’s hard Brexit rather than doing anything about this.

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Sir Keir’s conversion to Brexit does not, obviously, change the simple fact that this folly has been and will continue to be hugely detrimental to a UK economy for which Labour claims to care.

And the enormous effect on........

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