Don't mention the B-word: why aren't politicians talking about Brexit?

With just two weeks until the general election, the economy, the NHS, and immigration remain the main focal points of campaigning for Labour and the Conservatives. But the last general election's key issue, Brexit, has remained largely unmentioned by both.

It's clear that both leading parties have little "incentive to open what are seen as old wounds", said Greg Barradale in the Big Issue, but Britain's exit from the European Union remains a "major elephant in the room".

Yet, given that it is perhaps the "most momentous decision the UK has taken in a generation" it is still "very much a live issue" for voters, said Patience Wheatcroft in The New European. But Labour and the Tories have differing reasons for keeping it under wraps.

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'A Brexit omertà'

For Rishi Sunak, the reluctance to discuss Brexit comes from a "diminishing number" of voters who believe it was a "good idea", as well as "repeated stories emphasising implementation problems", said Dan Sabbagh in The Guardian.

Moreover, while ministers have tried "to talk up the trade deals" they have signed since Brexit, "no normal voter cares about pork markets", said Helen Lewis in The Atlantic, and those who voted for Brexit to curb immigration will have been left "severely disappointed" given the rising numbers. Immigration numbers are a crucial issue for the Tories in this campaign, and they are reluctant to highlight how Brexit has "been a bust".

Labour leader Keir Starmer, who campaigned to remain, has made little commitment to "significant change" to Britain's "status outside the EU", added Sabbagh. There is a sense that the "topic has been suppressed" to win over Conservative voters, and Labour does not want to remind them of Starmer's former position in the referendum. 

Likewise, Labour does not want to hand the Tories the opportunity to "fight the entire campaign on defending Brexit", wrote Peter Hutchinson at AFP, and threaten its potential majority in parliament. There is a sense, however, that if Starmer wins a significant majority then he will push for "closer alliances with Europe" and eventually put "Brexit back on the agenda".

One thing both parties have in common is the perception that Brexit has become "too dreadful even to be mentioned", said Wheatcroft, and the collective silence has been described as a "Brexit omertà" by Anand Menon of the thinktank UK in a Changing Europe.

'Just because something is dull doesn't make it unimportant'

While the two leading parties are reluctant to dwell on Brexit, there is a feeling that the electorate is tired of talking about it. With Brexit having been the leading issue in 2019, voters are now "bored with" it, said Lewis, and many are "enjoying the respite" having suffered "Brexit fatigue".

Indeed, even the Liberal Democrats, "committed Europhiles" who want to rejoin the EU, now "seem nervous about appearing too enthusiastic", said Wheatcroft, and the issue has been bumped back to the "final section" of their manifesto and is now a "longer-term objective".

Nigel Farage, who led the populist campaign to leave the EU, would also rather "talk about small boats crossing the Channel or the perils of a cashless society", said Lewis.

But just because "something is dull doesn't make it unimportant", and Brexit will soon be back on the table as a leading issue, said Simon Usherwood at The Conversation. The decision to ignore the issues now will have significant "consequences" in the future, he argued, and politicians will find themselves "having to firefight situations in the coming years" which have been created through turning a blind eye to Brexit.