'A betrayal' Discontent in one of the most pro-Brexit districts

When Keir Starmer was asked last week whether he thought Britons had finally moved on from the issue of Brexit, his answer was a definitive yes.

- Ben Quinn

It's not difficult to see why the prime minister would hope to settle the question, before a week in which he hopes to reset the UK's relationship with the EU, clearing a way for easier access to a marketplace that could help increase the economic growth he badly needs.

But at a different kind of marketplace, in one of the most stridently Brexit-backing parts of the country, the answer was not so clearcut. Gazing up from the display of scented products at his family's stall on the high street in Grays, Thurrock, Nigel Guest briefly pondered.

"It feels like we never left the EU, to be honest," replied Guest, 56, a lifelong native of the Essex constituency who, along with an overwhelming 72% of local voters, voted to leave the EU in 2016. Only three other districts backed Brexit to the same extent.

"I just feel it was a missed opportunity. Yes, people were sometimes fed bullshit. But they were asked if we wanted to come out and people around here literally voted in their droves for it. We've never really seen the investment we were promised." His partner, Sarah, accused successive governments of a "betrayal".