Labour must learn from its catastrophic Brexit blunder

Boris Johnson says he is desperate to get Brexit off the agenda for his own government, so that it can start applying blue cement to the bricks he turned blue in Labour’s red wall – or throw money and popular policies at the midlands and northern seats he recently pinched from Labour.

In fact he tried to persuade me, in an interview during the election, that only saddos like me will be remotely interested in the details of the trade and security deal with the EU he courageously believes can be negotiated in a record-breaking 11 months.

For better or ill, he may be right. I am flabbergasted that many of the business leaders to whom I speak, who hated Brexit, have capitulated and are now Johnson groupies.

But for the opposition, Brexit should and must rear its head, at least till a new leader is announced on 4 April.

Because the Labour party’s mishandling of how and whether the UK leaves the EU may represent the greatest fluffed opportunity of any opposition in history.