{"id":293888,"date":"2016-06-28T16:16:37","date_gmt":"2016-06-28T20:16:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/2016\/06\/brexit-and-the-vacuum-in-british-politics\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T15:28:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T19:28:20","slug":"brexit-and-the-vacuum-in-british-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2016\/06\/brexit-and-the-vacuum-in-british-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Brexit and the vacuum in British politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oh, the irony.<\/p>\n

A Brexit vote that was meant to repatriate democratic accountability back to British shores has instead thrown the very question of accountability up in the air. A clear majority of the British people backed leaving the European Union but no one, least of all the political leaders of the Brexit movement, has any idea what that means in practice or how they will achieve it.<\/p>\n

The resulting uncertainty is harming the well-being of Britons. The markets are down, and the pound is plumbing depths it hasn\u2019t seen in over a generation. Billions of dollars are being wiped off people\u2019s pensions. Who from the Brexit camp can or will speak to calm frayed nerves?<\/p>\n

The answer, it appears, is no one. The only peep from leading Brexiteers since Friday morning\u2019s seismic shock was Boris Johnson\u2019s regular column<\/a> in Monday\u2019s Daily Telegraph<\/em>, which had the feel of an ostrich seeking to plug its head back into European sands.<\/p>\n

The vacuum at the top of British politics is now complete. Prime Minister David Cameron has resigned, and Opposition Leader Jeremy Corbyn is under siege from his own Labour Party following a tsunami of resignations from his shadow cabinet. Britain is facing the most complicated act of governance in its modern history \u2014 extracting itself from the European Union \u2014 and no one has a plan.<\/p>\n

No matter who takes control, it\u2019s hard to see how the current composition of the House of Commons can produce a government lined up with the will of the people on the question of the hour.<\/p>\n

As a whole, the British Parliament is massively majority pro-\u201cremain.\u201d Conservative MPs, it bears reminding us, are also majority pro-remain, although they are likely to soon be led by a Brexiteer. The parliamentary Labour Party, too, is pro-remain, as is Corbyn, albeit with fingers crossed behind his back. That reticence is precisely why Labour MPs are so cross with Corbyn and his office and several are resigning. This, however, puts them massively offside with the majority of Labour\u2019s membership, who are simultaneously pro-Corbyn and pro-\u201cleave.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far, so complicated.<\/p>\n

The only pro-remain party to represent an unquestionably pro-remain constituency in Westminster is the Scottish National Party, whose raison d\u2019\u00eatre, of course, is to break up the United Kingdom, something Brexit has now kicked into higher gear. The Liberal Democrats are also unequivocal on Europe, but their rump \u2014 a mere eight MPs \u2014 no longer generates movement in Parliament.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the only pro-leave leader who represents a resolutely pro-leave constituency is Nigel Farage of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), and he doesn\u2019t have a seat in Parliament. Indeed, the only UKIP MP who does have a say in Westminster, Douglas Carswell, hates Farage\u2019s guts.<\/p>\n

Nor is Farage certain to be offered a place in the Brexit negotiation team. Although the official leave campaign ended up aping his odious anti-immigration arguments in the final weeks of the campaign, the man himself remains persona non grata in the respectable salons of pro-leave opinion.<\/p>\n

Returning to the question: Who, then, speaks for the 52 percent who backed breaking up with the European Union? And what do they want?<\/p>\n

If you believe the winning Vote Leave campaign (which didn\u2019t<\/em> include Farage), it won because people wanted to \u201ctake back control\u201d from an overbearing EU bureaucracy. Its vision is resolutely pro-trade and pro-economic-freedom. The Farage camp, however, claims it was a desire to crack down on immigration that won the day. These aren\u2019t mutually exclusive interpretations, but the emphasis is clearly being placed on two very different ideas of \u201ccontrol.\u201d<\/p>\n

A lot of the blame for poor economic outcomes in pro-leave regions falls on the kind of pro-market, pro-trade policies that Vote Leave now wants to pursue with even greater vigour. Globalization is the enemy here, and a newly independent Britain would have to be even more competitive and globalized to keep investment flowing. What would the Farage crowd \u2014 which includes populist conservative and<\/em> ex-Labour working-class support \u2014 say to this kind of a program?<\/p>\n

We might be about to find out.<\/p>\n

The more Westminster descends into farce, the more it becomes clear that whatever governing formation emerges will need a mandate to extract Britain from Europe. Just how effectively the split Conservative and Labour parties could campaign in the resulting election is an open question. So, too, is the level of support a motivated UKIP could claim. The result could be even more political instability.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the markets and Britain\u2019s allies will be left with no clear signals to plan the new world order and might go on to plan it without British input, a result that couldn\u2019t be less accountable or more out of control.<\/p>\n

Photo: Pixelbliss \/ Shutterstock.com<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

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Oh, the irony. A Brexit vote that was meant to repatriate democratic accountability back to British shores has instead thrown the very question of accountability up in the air. A clear majority of the British people backed leaving the European Union but no one, least of all the political leaders of the Brexit movement, has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":913,"featured_media":293886,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"article-status":[],"irpp-category":[],"section":[],"irpp-tag":[],"class_list":["post-293888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBrexit and the vacuum in British politics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2016\/06\/brexit-and-the-vacuum-in-british-politics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Brexit and the vacuum in British politics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Oh, the irony. A Brexit vote that was meant to repatriate democratic accountability back to British shores has instead thrown the very question of accountability up in the air. 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