Labour needs to be more critical of Brexit realities, this article appears to argue. But what is Labour actually supposed to say? That it is a terrible deal and needs to be renegotiated? That the UK should rejoin the Customs Union and the Single Market? https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/feb/13/keir-starmer-facing-pressure-to-end-silence-on-tory-brexit-failures

All of which would be true, if Labour were to say it. But, and this is the key question, why would the EU now want to renegotiate anything with the UK? Where is the incentive for it to do so? What leverage does the UK have to get the EU back to the negotiating table? On anything?

Just ask Gove. He sent an intemperate letter to the EU demanding a radical "reset" on the Irish Protocol, to be completed by the end of the week before last. It didn't happen and so today we end up with No 10 spinning "tunnels" under the Irish Sea.

The UK had negotiating leverage during the transition period will it was still de facto within the CU/SM. But it threw that leverage away with a self-imposed artificial deadline of December 31, 2020, just so Johnson could say he got "Brexit done".

The TCA shows all the signs of an agreement negotiated in haste, without due consideration. It is really not much more than a tariff/quota-free deal on goods with significant conditionality on rules of origin. It is a good deal for the EU, much less so for the UK.

So, back to Labour's dilemma. The only way it can properly criticise "Boris's Brexit" is by proposing a radical rethink of the UK's relationship with the EU and that requires an ability to show benefits for the EU from any new relationship if the EU is to engage.

You have to ask why would the EU, with all the other issues it has to deal with, want to invest time and resources in any sort of negotiation with the UK until the UK decides on a settled cross-party EU policy? And that is not going to happen anytime soon.