Britain left the European Union in name in January 2020, but remained subject to the EU, its judges, and its migration regime through a so-called “transition” period. It left in a real sense on at 11 pm on December 31st — according to supporters of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s exit deal, at least. But how did the country get here?
This is part one of a three-part series.
Brexit has been a marathon, not a sprint. From the campaign to get Britain out of the European Economic Community in the 1975 referendum — Prime Minister Ted Heath had taken the country in without consulting the people in 1973 — to Thatcher’s Bruges speech in 1988 and the foundation of the Referendum Party and UKIP in the 1990s, it has been a long haul.
The latest chapter in this story really begins in 2014, with former Tory leader David Cameron leading a weak government in coalition with the Liberal Democrats, a fanatically pro-EU party, into the 2014 European Parliament elections.
The United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) taking first place in that election, with the Conservative Party in third behind Labour and the Lib Dems winning just one seat, prompted two Conservatives MPs back home in the House of Commons to defect to the Nigel Farage-led party and trigger by-elections — and they won both.
This caused panic in Downing Street, and Cameron, who like many Tories had long posed as a “eurosceptic” for votes but was actually firmly committed to EU membership, offered the public a referendum on the bloc to stem the proverbial bleeding ahead of the 2015 general election.
[Interesting Read]
See Also:
(1) Boris’s Brexit deal is a bit of a FRAUD – here’s 10 reasons why
(2) Into the Brexit unknown, a divided United Kingdom goes it alone
(3) 2020: the year civil liberty was suspended
