Ten years on

June marks ten years since the referendum, the glorious referendum, which saw the British people vote to leave the European Union. If nothing else, it was a salutary reminder that London is not Britain, that many more people live outside the great cities than inside them. And the vote was clear – if not overwhelming.

But when David Dimbleby called the result on the BBC early in the morning of 23 June 2016 with the words, “We’re out”, he was getting ahead of events. It took years to get out, not until 31 January 2020. Why so long? Because the people in power never wanted to leave. Faced with a vote they never expected, their first impulse was to find ways to frustrate it.

And ever since, they’ve been working on ways of getting Britain back into the EU. Now our rulers and Brussels have found an ingenious solution: they are trying to get Britain back in the EU without actually rejoining. 

It suits Westminster because they can say they’re not rejoining the EU. It suits Brussels because Britain isn’t sitting on decision-making committees with the risk that it might occasionally be disruptive. Britain pays the money, and abides by rules that Brussels sets. 

The truth is that Brexit is a job not started properly and definitely not finished. The Withdrawal Agreement came into full effect on 31 January 2020, celebrated as Independence Day. But what with the Northern Ireland Agreement and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (free movement between Britain and the EU didn’t actually end until 1 January 2021) it was an incomplete kind of independence.

How many in Britain see that truth? Too many – to judge by the polls – think Brexit hasn’t worked. So far, we in this party, and others, have failed to impress on the country as a whole that Brexit hasn’t properly happened. And that’s the failure.

Most people assumed that following Brexit net migration would fall. It didn’t. That is not a failing of Brexit. It’s the result of the determination of successive governments to increase the labour pool to decrease pressure on employers to raise wages and spend money training the skilled workers Britain needs.

The number of people known to have crossed the Channel in small boats in 2018 was 299. Last year it was 41,472. Just imagine how workers would be thinking about Brexit if governments had put a stop to net immigration. And to the small boats. Or supported fishing and British farming.

The mistake the working class made was in assuming that the political system would respect the vote. Yet the warnings were there after the 2014 Scottish referendum.

Ten years on, the working class must accept that nothing will change until it stops delegating politics to establishment politicians and takes responsibility for running Britain.