The paradox here is Jones falls into the same blind alley Remain leaders angered by him did

Soft Brexit would still have needed willingness to make a positive case for deep involvement in European institutions that neither many Remain leaders nor EEA Leavers were willing to make https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/1335948554930622465

Soft Brexit would have been renegotiation of the UK's position within the EU system. Promoting it would have still required building positive arguments for deep engagement in shared European structures. EEA Leavers faced pretty much many of the same dilemmas as the Remain pitch

Right up until December 2019 a large swathe of Remainers as well as most of the Remain leadership based their pitch on how the UK had such a great deal through opt outs before 2016 rather than a positive case for involvement in European integration.

A largely defensive effort.

Yet selling an EEA Leave model would have required building similar public commitment to deep involvement in European institutions on a renegotiated basis. All the compromises needed would have been equally susceptible to accusations of not adequately "taking back control".

Without a broad public commitment to European integration that cut across partisan lines, encompassing the full ideological spectrum from Right to Left, both Remain or any EEA Soft Brexit were going to struggle to build and sustain reliable long term majority support in England