A leftwing UK post-Brexit is as likely as a socialist Rees-Mogg

Labour Brexiters see the UK as essentially different from France and Germany - but we share the same economic challenges, including reluctance to pay more tax

There are some Labour-supporting Brexiters who like to think that Britain is peculiar among European nations, and that differences of language, culture and history mean it should never have found itself inside a common market, let alone a union, with its continental neighbours.

Jacques Delors's speech to the TUC in 1988 positioned the UK inside a family of like-minded nations. And it had the effect of converting not only much of the UK trades union movement to the benefits of a marriage between social protection and regulated markets, but also much of the Labour party.