Scotland knows Brexit is holding Britain back. Why won't Labour admit it? | John Swinney

The pantomime season may be over, but when it comes to the government’s much-repeated claim to be pursuing economic growth above all else, the cry of “It’s behind you” is sounding ever louder. This classic panto joke works when everyone in the audience can see something clearly but the character on stage pretends not to. So it is with Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal and Rachel Reeves’s attempts to kickstart the economy. Reeves and Keir Starmer are ignoring what is blindingly obvious to everyone else: Brexit is a significant drag on Britain’s growth prospects. They know it’s true but refuse to acknowledge it and, more importantly, to do anything about it.

There is, however, nothing comical about this situation. The hard Brexit negotiated by Johnson took the UK out of the EU, the single market and the customs union and brought an end to freedom of movement. As a result, people are paying the price through higher food bills, lower growth and therefore lower tax revenue that could and should be spent on the NHS.

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the UK formally leaving this great project – in which countries come together on the basis of agreed values – to share and enhance sovereignty for the common good. For Starmer, however, it seems Nigel Farage is more of an influence on his decision-making than the interests of Scotland, where European freedom of movement in particular enriched our country in so many ways, culturally and economically.

To be clear, I don’t see freedom of movement as merely a trade-off to secure business access to the huge single market. They are complementary benefits, helping business, communities and our world-class universities. Enabling people to live, love, work and study across the European Union is one of the EU’s great achievements. And, of course, Brexit was driven through despite the fact that Scotland, as well as Northern Ireland, voted decisively to remain in the EU. This itself calls into question the idea of the UK as a voluntary union of equal partners.

The EU is not perfect, but its founding values – human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights – are precious fundamentals in our society that I want to protect and nurture. Those values are, however, being challenged internally and externally. So, as the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, made clear in her speech in Davos last week, that is all the more reason for countries that believe in cooperation to continue to work together in a shared endeavour to champion those values.

For many people, although those values will be keenly felt, it is the economic cost that matters most. This week the Scottish government presented yet more evidence of the continuing damage to trade and GDP as a result of hard Brexit. It simply isn’t possible to claim that growth is the number one priority while engaging in a Westminster conspiracy of silence over Brexit. Labour appears to be casting around in an ever greater panic for ideas to boost growth, while ignoring all the evidence of the damage caused by the Brexit deal it inherited but refuses to seek to change in any meaningful way.

I believe it is time to fight back against that hard Brexit Westminster consensus. In the short term, the government needs to clarify urgently what it actually wants from its much-vaunted “reset” of European relations. The Scottish government is clear on our priorities: for example, we need an ambitious veterinary agreement to help our food and drink industry; we need closer cooperation on energy to help boost investment and tackle the climate emergency; and we badly need a youth mobility scheme to open up greater educational opportunities for our young people again.

A bolder and necessary step would be to join the single market and the customs union and refuel our trade with Europe. The Scottish government would be a willing partner with the UK government and the EU in pursuit of those goals, which would have a real impact on people’s lives. I urge the government therefore to think again about its self-defeating red lines and to seek a genuinely closer relationship with our fellow Europeans.

For Scotland, the real prize, of course, is to become a member state in our own right for the first time. It is striking that EU countries very similar to Scotland enjoy higher productivity and greater equality than the UK. For Ireland, it has been said persuasively that it was the policy flexibility that came with independence, alongside EU membership, that enabled economic take-off.

For the rest of the UK, it seems inevitable that the journey back to being an EU member state will start at some point. Surely it is better to start that journey now than to continue to put up with such ongoing, needless economic damage.

• John Swinney is the first minister of Scotland