Is Sadiq Khan finally breaking Labour's Brexomertà?

Could it be? Are we hearing correctly? Is a senior member of the country’s official opposition being brave enough to speak up and publicly say the government’s central economic, foreign and constitutional policy, the one on which it was elected, might not be working very well?

It sounds ludicrous wording it like that, and the fact that it is noteworthy sums up Labour’s remarkable position on Brexit. But Sadiq Khan will nonetheless make headlines this evening when, in a speech at Mansion House in the City of London, the capital’s mayor will attack the effects of Brexit and call for a shift to greater alignment with Europe.

Keir Starmer, conversely, started the year by seeking to portray himself as more Catholic than the Pope on Brexit, appropriating the official Leave campaign’s ‘Take Back Control’ slogan for his policy on devolving power within Britain. Scarred by the 2019 general election, the Labour leader remains convinced talk of the even most minor tinkering with the UK’s post-Brexit relations with its biggest trade partner is to hand the Conservatives the keys to the Red Wall.

Even in Scotland, which voted decisively to remain in the EU, Labour dances around the issue, focusing on “protecting the UK-wide single market”. And Welsh first minister Mark Drakeford last year insisted “the world has moved on”.

And yet the polls say otherwise. According to an Opinium survey for the Best for Britain group, one in three TORY voters, or 33%, now believe that Brexit has created more problems than it has solved. Only 22% say the opposite.

Which is why it is significant that Khan is breaking the Brexomertà, as Neil Kinnock coined it. In his speech tonight he will speak of the government’s “denial” of the “immense damage” he says Brexit is doing. The consequences of leaving the EU “can’t be airbrushed out of history”, he will say, calling for measures which will “sensibly and maturely mitigate the damage that’s being inflicted”.

In his speech, Khan will say: “After two years of denial and avoidance, we must now confront the hard truth: Brexit isn’t working.

“It’s weakened our economy, fractured our union and diminished our reputation. But, crucially, not beyond repair. We need greater alignment with our European neighbours – a shift from this extreme, hard Brexit we have now to a workable version that serves our economy and people.”

People will inevitably debate Khan’s motivation. Giving a speech in the City is, of course, almost literally preaching to the converted, although it is not cynical to reflect the very real worries of a sector which lost its title of Europe’s largest equity market to France in November.

And some will suggest Khan – a London mayor who creates relatively few ripples nationally – still has a sniff for the Labour leadership and knows that Starmer’s reticence to even acknowledge Brexit remains a source of immense frustration to a large swathe of its grassroots membership.

Or maybe, just possibly, he knows what an absolute disaster Brexit has been to London, Britain, our trade and our international standing, and can no longer stand by without talking about it and the measures which can, at the very least, mitigate the worst of it. In a sense, who cares what his motivation is? The real news is that somebody senior in His Majesty’s Official Opposition is breaking the Brexomertà, and that feels very important.