Brexit: new political realities one year after referendum

Press Office

The UK’s vote to leave the EU has given birth to new political identities, say the University’s Professor Richard Whitman and Professor Matthew Goodwin in a new report for The UK in a Changing Europe.

The report, entitled EU referendum: one year on, was commissioned by the Political Studies Association and demonstrates how the referendum has produced new political allegiances based on the Leave-Remain divide.

A year on, nearly three-quarters of people think of themselves as Leavers (38%) or Remainers (35%) – these identities did not exist to this extent in previous years and is a similar proportion to those who identify with political parties.

Writing on foreign policy, Professor Whitman argues that, as a non-member of the EU, the UK will be ‘a bystander’ with minimal influence on European defence decisions that directly impact on national security.

Some member states have already proposed deepening EU defence collaboration in a direction the UK has resisted, giving impetus to the EU Commission to earmark part of the EU budget for spending on defence research, which the UK would be excluded from.

Also writing in the report, Professor Goodwin, together with Robert Ford and Maria Sobolewska, considers the state of British politics. He concludes that Labour’s decision to embrace Brexit in some form may have helped them reframe the focus onto austerity and public services in the recent General Election.

While the Conservatives were painting Labour as out of touch and extreme, they failed to realise that in their own heartlands they were vulnerable to the same charge, he suggests.

Richard Whitman is Professor of Politics and International Relations and Head of Kent’s of School of Politics and International Relations (POLIR).

Matthew Goodwin is Professor of Politics and International Relations in POLIR and author of Revolt on The Right (with Robert Ford) and Brexit – Why Britain Voted to Leave the European Union (with Harold D. Clarke and Paul Whiteley).