If Sir Keir Starmer or anyone in his Cabinet have not yet read the London School of Economics and Political Science’s paper on the effect of Brexit on UK goods exports, they should do so forthwith.

This analysis, Deep Integration and Trade: UK Firms in the Wake of Brexit, was published this week by the LSE’s Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) and it must surely make miserable reading for any Leavers with open minds.

That said, many Brexiters have demonstrated a distinct lack of willingness to acknowledge the consequences of their folly.

The consequences are, of course, huge. And Brexit’s enormous drag on the UK economy is writ large in the CEP analysis.

Thomas Sampson, co-author and associate professor of economics at the LSE, characterises the situation as a “disaster for small exporters”.

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Two Scottish cities tipped to outperform but another to 'struggle'

It is a demoralising state of affairs, particularly given the new Labour Government, while seeking to try to improve the UK’s post-Brexit Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) with the European Union in what are sadly only small ways, has embraced the key elements of the Tory hard Brexit.

Specifically, Labour has made it plain it will continue to deprive UK exporters and importers of the huge benefits of frictionless trade.

It has also emphasised it will not boost the UK’s economic growth potential by striving to restore free movement of people between the UK and European Economic Area, and enable the hugely beneficial immigration that would bring for........

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