Come with me to Jacob Rees-Mogg’s house. The Brexiters are rattled – and it shows

All the old gang were there: a reunion of the Brexit triumphalists. I was one of the guests in the stately drawing room of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s Georgian townhouse in Westminster last week, as the Bruges Group met to cheer the launch of the new book 75 Brexit Benefits: Tangible Benefits from the UK Having Left the European Union. Tory Brexiteers Iain Duncan Smith, Bill Cash and John Redwood were all there, a gathering of the kind of Eurosceptics John Major once called the “bastards”.

Our host, Rees-Mogg, was in jubilant form, celebrating Keir Starmer’s recent speeches that named the economic damage done by Brexit. In Labour’s new willingness to touch the Brexit live rail, the Bruges Group members welcomed the revival of the grand old conflict as their way back to referendum glory days. Rees-Mogg chortled: “Starmer’s view that re-entering the European Union is the answer to our economy is as true as everything else he says.” Much mirth, as he departed early for his State of the Nation slot on GB News.

Are they right that Labour reopening the Brexit wound will reignite toxic old referendum passions? Nothing ever divided the country as much as that mendacious, xenophobic and in essence frivolous leave campaign. Its leaders were in it for fun and personal advancement: the Tory party was destroyed by it, only Nigel Farage has benefited. The bitter campaign split families, workplaces and neighbourhoods, stirring anti-migrant hate. Nothing in my lifetime has caused such deep political grief.

For all the anguish it caused the losing side, it was soon plain it gave no corresponding joy to most leave voters, who are still facing its real-life effects. Soured political attitudes spring partly from the empty hyperbole of “Take back control” and a “sovereignty” signifying nothing. Who feels empowered by the failure of a country falling further behind? The

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