Membership of the European single market was at stake when the UK voted on Brexit, but it was not the decisive question in the campaign. The leave campaign dishonestly promised a cost-free severance of ties with Britain’s largest trading partner. As immigration came to dominate the debate, the requirement to allow free movement of people as a condition of seamless integration with European markets undermined the remainers’ most compelling argument.

Reluctance to advocate a liberal migration regime imposed a taboo on calls to reconsider the Brexit settlement, even as warnings about the cost of rupture were vindicated. Now, after a decade of forsaken growth, the mood is finally changing.