The Reform voters who think Brexit has failed

“Hang on a minute, lads, I’ve got a great idea.” Only four months after watching Reform take the lead in opinion polls and a mere four years since Rejoin began to take convincing leads over Stay Out, Labour have finally had their Michael Caine moment.

As Keir Starmer’s coach balances precariously on the edge of a cliff, the party has finally decided to attack Nigel Farage on Brexit. Nick Thomas-Symonds, the minister for EU relations, is right that Farage’s plan to rip up the Brexit reset would “take Britain backwards” by inflicting renewed misery on British business. This is welcome, but long overdue – especially when the more sensible pollsters suggest Reform has built up a consistent lead of around eight points.

Evidence of the scale of the challenge can be seen in a report from the More In Common think tank, just released but compiling work done with focus groups earlier in the year. Here are quotes from four different people who took part:

“I ordered a pair of trainers from, I think it was a place in Italy, and I thought I’d got a really good price on it, but now we have to pay customs excise on them… I ended up having to pay £80 to get them to the country. So I lost out on my saving completely. And that’s happening with lots of different goods from lots of different countries.”

“We are the poor relations of Europe now, in my opinion. And I don’t think that can be repaired anytime soon.”

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“Brexit had an impact on food, the price… in normal day-to-day living, our food’s gone up because of this trade. All things that we buy from European countries, you know, everything’s gone up.”

“If we were still in Europe… we’d have a stronger voice against America. We’re not in a club, we’re out of Europe now. We’ve lost a lot of that power from that.”

Remarkably, all of those people say that even though Brexit has plainly not worked, they would vote for pro-Brexit parties next time. Three of them would back Farage, Mr Brexit and the architect of some of their pain, as prime minister. You can’t help thinking that this is what happens when you are unwilling to tie your biggest opponent to the biggest self-inflicted economic disaster in decades.

So Nick Thomas-Symonds should only be the start. Attach Brexit to Nigel Farage’s neck like a cone of shame. Make sure people know that when their trainers cost £80 more, when their food prices go up, when they feel that Britain’s power in the world is diminished, that he’s the one to blame.

That’s the right way to right the wobbling coach – and send the EU’s gold stars, like Charlie Croker’s gold bars, sliding back towards us.