Labour must hold the Tories to account on Brexit

John McDonnell is now speaking at the Labour conference, and will pledge to match the regional funding that communities will lose as a result of Brexit. This has been billed as ‘one of the Labour Party’s biggest policy statements since the Brexit vote’, which is another way of saying ‘one of the Labour Party’s only policy statements since the Brexit vote’.

The turmoil in the party since that vote and its dismal performance in the polls (which, despite urban legend, was the case before the attempted coup against Corbyn) means that it’s largely pointless to evaluate this policy statement as though it might actually happen. Labour isn’t going to be in government any time soon.

But what Labour can do right now is hold the Tories to account on Brexit. Representatives from businesses were disappointed to hear the Shadow Chancellor criticising the Remain campaign for going too far in scaremongering about the economy when he spoke at a reception last night.