Thread by @nickreeves9876

1/ Polling shows 53% support rejoining the EU against 47% who oppose it. 48% think Brexit was wrong vs 39% who think it was right.

Labour wants to stay quiet on Brexit to recapture the red wall. But should non-Labour folk follow Labour and do the same? I say no.

2/ Democracy requires that the views of the anti-Brexit majority are represented. If Labour fails to provide that, then other parties, and political activists have to do that job. It is a travesty of democracy to have over half the population silenced on this issue.

3/ Brexit leaders and many in Labour want to present Brexit as an irresistible political force. That is a lie. In spite of the hostility of most of the political and media establishment Remain gained a majority in the polls in 2017 and has retained it ever since.

4/ The Brexiters were desperate to block a 2nd referendum which they knew they would lose. The 2019 election produced a majority of votes for 2nd referendum parties despite Corbyn's unpopularity, a poor Labour campaign and a wretched LibDem national campaign.

5/ From 2017 onwards Remain has won the battle of public opinion against the headwind of establishment hostility. We have been let down by the undemocratic FPTP system and by wretchedly bad opposition leadership.

6/ Labour may feel that it needs to play down Brexit to regain the red wall. That might work, for Labour. But it might also reinforce the image of Labour as an insincere and patronising party controlled by a manipulative metropolitan elite.

7/ But should Remainers in general follow Labour's strategy? I would say no. We should represent the majority, and the LibDems and Greens have many target seats in pro-EU majority areas, the number of which has surely grown since 2016.

8/ I believe a Progressive Alliance to be vital for the defence and strengthening of our democracy. But within such an Alliance I think it would be better if there were a significant shift of support from Labour to the LibDems and Greens.

9/ The stronger the LibDems and Greens are relative to Labour the more likely we are to get a Progressive Alliance, PR and the fundamental political reform which the UK urgently needs. We do not need another solo Labour government deciding that FPTP is actually not that bad.

10/ I do not believe rejoining the EU is the task for the next Parliament. We first need a fundamental strengthening of our democracy, the expulsion of big money from our politics, media reform and the pushing of Brexit nationalism onto the political margins - all big tasks.

11/ We don't need opposition parties screaming 'rejoin now', but we do need at least some of them to speak loudly clearly and honestly about the fundamental problems inherent in a hard Brexit. And none must rule out rejoining.

12/ The formula for someone like Starmer should be "For the moment we'll make the best out of Brexit, even though it has fundamental weaknesses. If one day a large majority of the public make clear that they want to rejoin, then democracy requires that we would listen to them."