Labour conference: Starmer should fight election on Brexit, says Hilary Benn

Labour should promise to fix the "mess" caused by Brexit at the next general election, a former minister has said.

Hilary Benn said people "can see what is happening in front of their eyes" and it was time argue for "a new relationship with the EU".

But the idea could open old wounds, with Labour's Brexit policy blamed by some on the left for its heavy 2019 general election defeat.

Sir Keir Starmer has not made Brexit a priority since becoming leader.

It was mentioned just five times in his 11,500 word essay on the future of the party, with the Labour leader saying: "We would fix the holes in the shoddy Brexit deal - but we also need to think more broadly about how government and business interact."

A group of MPs who like Sir Keir campaigned for another Brexit referendum, including frontbenchers Alex Sobel and Alison McGovern, got together at Labour's conference in Brighton to call for him to speak out more on the issue.

Vocal Remain campaigner, Lord Adonis, said Sir Keir should go further and campaign to rejoin both the single market and customs union at the next election - key parts of membership of the EU.

He said the party needed to move "step by step towards rejoining" the bloc as the UK's "destiny is to be European", adding: "The only thing that is stopping us... is an absence of imagination and real passion in campaigning."

But at a fringe event at Labour's party conference in Brighton, a number of MPs - including shadow ministers Alex Sobel and Alison McGovern - spoke of their frustrations with the Brexit deal agreed between the UK and EU, and its impact.

Mr Benn said: "Let's just say it, Brexit is a mess.

"The truth is, bit by bit, the British people can see what is happening in front of their eyes - the queues, the shortages... the threat to peace and security that a Labour government achieved after many years with the Northern Ireland [peace agreement]."

The former minister said the only people who did not want to talk about Brexit anymore were the government, who were coming up with "fanciful excuses" to problems in the country.

"We see the problems that Brexit has created for British economy, British people, jobs, investments," he added.

"For our future, we have to start the process of building a new closer economic relationship. That is what we have to do. bit by bit, step by step.

"It makes enormous sense to say we need to build a new relationship with those friends and partners across the Channel and that should be the message we take to the people at the next election."

After the speech, Mr Benn would not say if he had discussed his campaign proposals with Sir Keir.

Instead, he told the BBC that the leader was "a very busy man".