What Is Brexit?
The British Exit, more
popularly known as "Brexit," was the culmination of conservative British political "Euroskepticism" that grew throughout the 2010s (Wallenfeldt, 2022).
The Referendum
A public referendum was held in June 2016 among British voters on whether the United Kingdom (U.K.) should Leave or Remain in the European Union (E.U.). A narrow majority of 52% of participants voted to Leave (Wallenfeldt, 2022). After a public vote,"...the terms of exit would be settled by the government in consultation with the E.U." (Quinn et al., 2022).
Why Did So Many Referendum Participants Vote Leave?
Most arguments for Leaving the E.U. were tied to concerns about sovereignty, immigration, economics, finance, and regulation. Regarding immigration specifically, Leave voters viewed migrants as unskilled laborers with poor English skills who would “‘undercut the native working population’” and drain social services (Lee, 2016). Furthermore, these voters had negative views of refugees and believed that immigration was “a bad thing for the country,” the primary way to control it was to leave the E.U., and freedom of movement should be reduced (Curtice, 2016). Migrants were also vilified in the British media leading up to the vote (Martins, 2021).
​
The clips below are from a 2016 episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver that aired just before the referendum and highlight some of the key aspects of the (then upcoming) vote.
Video will play from 1:30 to 5:08
(LastWeekTonight, 2016)
Video will play from 6:16 to 10:18
(LastWeekTonight, 2016)
Brexit Goes Into Effect
After multiple years of British political gridlock and controversy as well as a transitionary period, Brexit was finalized in December 2020. The final withdrawal agreement did not include economic freedom of movement policies, which greatly affected immigration into and emigration out of the U.K. It also "clarified that there would be no limits or taxes on goods sold between U.K. and E.U. parties," instead introducing large amounts of new paperwork to facilitate trade (Wallenfeldt, 2022). The agreement is more characteristic of a 'hard' rather than a 'soft' Brexit, which equates to "looser ties between the U.K. and the E.U." as desired by a small coalition of Euroskeptic elected Members of Parliament (Quinn et al., 2022).
One key political dispute centered on how to handle trade and migration over the land border of Northern Ireland, part of the U.K., and the Republic of Ireland, a sovereign E.U. member state. Despite the finalized resolution, disagreement about how to handle this issue remains ongoing (Wallenfeldt, 2022). The short video below from CGP Grey (2019) discusses the dispute as it was being negotiated.
Page References
CGP Grey. (2019, March 10). Brexit, briefly: Revisited! [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1Yv24cM2os
Curtice, J. (2016). The two poles of the referendum debate: Immigration and economy. What UK Thinks: EU.
https://whatukthinks.org/eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Analysis-paper-4-The-two-poles-of-the-referendum-debate.pdf
LastWeekTonight. (2016, June 20). Brexit: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) [Video]. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAgKHSNqxa8
Lee, T. B. (2016, June 25). Brexit: The 7 most important arguments for Britain to leave the EU. Vox.
https://www.vox.com/2016/6/22/11992106/brexit-arguments
Martins, M. (2021). News media representation on EU immigration before Brexit: The ‘Euro-Ripper’ case. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-020-00687-5
Quinn, T., Allen, N., & Bartle, J. (2022). Why was there a hard Brexit? The British legislative party system, divided majorities and the incentives for factionalism. Political Studies, 003232172210763. https://doi.org/10.1177/00323217221076353
Wallenfeldt, J. (2022). Brexit. In Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved April 11, 2023, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Brexit