Building a consensus around rejoining the EU is the government’s first task

This week’s elections have redrawn the political map of the UK and brought a new sense of urgency to the government’s policy choices. What’s needed above all is a bold and credible plan for economic growth to raise living standards and support badly needed improvements in public services.

The UK’s relationship with the European Union, its biggest trading partner, has to play a central part in such an initiative. The economic costs of Brexit are now absolutely clear. But the government’s response so far has been timid in the extreme for fear of losing support in those constituencies that supported Brexit. Thursday showed that this battle has been lost, with their long-term goal of rejoining the EU.

Writing in The Observer last week, Keir Starmer said: “Britain must be at the heart of a stronger Europe on defence, on security, on energy, and on our economy.” He can’t achieve that by tip-toeing around on the sidelines, hemmed in by red lines on the customs union and the single market. What’s required is an ambitious vision for a substantially different relationship with the EU, one in which the UK is a full partner in a reformed Europe.

Joining the customs union, as some propose, would require endless negotiations for limited economic benefit. Moving into the single market would mean that the UK would have to follow rules it had played no part in setting.

So the government has two big challenges. First, it has to start building a consensus in the UK for rejoining the EU. That must be built on the positive arguments for partnership in a dangerous world, rather than on the dismal stories of Brexit’s costs. Second, it has to engage with Brussels in the urgent task – now under way – of deepening and widening the single market. The UK could make a valuable contribution to this effort.

All this will take time and will be risky. But the risks to the government and, above all, to the country, of hunkering down in a semi-detached state would be much greater.

Richard Lambert is chair of the Observer editorial board and a former director general of the CBI