Which senior politician has argued that “Brexit did deep damage” and that the government seeks “not to turn back the clock but to look toward a new and stable, future relationship?”

It was not Andy Burnham, who has been the torchbearer for thinking the unthinkable on Brexit since he became prime minister. Instead, these are the words of the former chancellor Rachel Reeves, in a lecture six months ago.

Reeves has taken a more thoughtful approach on how to come to terms with life outside government than some of her fellow former ministers.

A speech at Harvard on Monday will be her first public intervention on her own record and on Britain’s future, wisely left until after John Healey’s first budget .

She will say no one in government could “be in any doubt” about her view on the damage of Brexit – and her belief that one day the UK should return to the EU fold.…