The UK is haunted by Johnson’s ‘botched Brexit deal’ and Labour’s plans for change don’t go far enough

A man waves a British flag in London as the United Kingdom departs from the European Union in January 2020. Photograph: Henry Nicholls/Reuters

Five years since Brexit, the UK wants to reset the EU relationship. A simple question of sitting down with the EU and negotiating, surely?

Sort of, though not quite. It’s easy to see why a self-professed growth-obsessed government might seek to be closer to the EU. It’s less clear why it’s seeking what it is, or whether achieving any of it will be easy.