The Brexit omertà Why both main parties are scared to mention the B word

It was once the defining issue in British politics -but this time around no one, it seems, is in any way keen to discuss the UK's place in the EU

- Dan Sabbagh

"Get Brexit done" was the promise, repeated to the point of tedium, that took Boris Johnson's Conservatives to a landslide victory in Britain's 2019 election. But the subject - for so long the defining issue in UK politics - has barely featured in the current campaign.

Keir Starmer, whose Labour party is 20 percentage points ahead on the average of opinion polls, hardly mentions Britain's relationship with the EU.

Anand Menon, the director of the thinktank UK in a Changing Europe, said: "There is an underlying nervousness because Starmer is felt to be vulnerable to attack as a former remainer, anti-Brexit, and Labour needs to hold on to pro-Brexit leave voters."

Although the Brexit referendum took place in June 2016, resulting in a narrow 52% vote in favour of leaving the EU, there was no clear plan for its implementation. That unleashed a period of political turmoil that ended only when Johnson won the 2019 election.

In the run-up to that vote, Starmer, then the party's Brexit spokesperson, pressed for Labour to support a second referendum, saying: "We would campaign for remain." But so emphatic was Johnson's election victory, and so important Labour's need to win back Tory votes among Brexit supporters, the topic has been suppressed.