SO, the man who gave us Brexit has gone.
Ironically, the man who resisted it for years, despite the referendum result, remains, now purporting to support it.
Only this week, in a speech to the Centre for European Reform, Sir Keir Starmer came up with a five-point plan ‘to make Brexit work’.
In an implicit recognition that Brexit is decided, he said: “You cannot move forward, or grow the country, or deliver change or win back the trust of those who have lost faith in politics if you're constantly focused on the arguments of the past”.
He’s absolutely right.
That means Britain not rejoining the EU, nor the single market, nor a customs union, nor reinstating freedom of movement – all of which Starmer, to his credit, pointed out.
Even Remainer ITV commentator Robert Peston has described it as a view, “remarkably similar to Boris’s”.
And it was.
Starmer’s focus on investing in our own talent, places and expertise, and removing unnecessary trade barriers, while sorting out the Northern Ireland Protocol, is not new – it came from our Manifesto.
However, even if the Labour leader has suddenly seen the light, I remain sceptical.
This is a man who promised, as Labour Brexit spokesman, that his party would accept the verdict of the 2016 referendum, ‘from a position of principle’.
But principle was conveniently forgotten as Starmer on no less than 48 times voted to hinder our exit from the EU, and within 18 months argued for a second referendum in which Labour would campaign for Remain with the Lib Dems.
Why anyone wishes to see their country run by another has always baffled me.
In the past, you needed to invade it to achieve that.