United Kingdom Withdrawal From the European Union / Brexit

Overview

United Kingdom Withdrawal From the European Union, colloquially known as Brexit (short for “British Exit”), refers to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU), a regional political-economic union that the country has been a member of since joining its precursor organization, European Economic Community (EEC), in 1973. While the UK’s membership status within the EU has been a long-standing topic of debate in the country for decades, the public interest surrounding the issue saw an unprecedented resurgence during the months leading up to its EU referendum in June 2016. The referendum ended with 51,9% of the voters voting to leave the European Union.

Background

Following the end of the World War II in 1945, many European countries called for a closer political and economic integration at the regional level. During the early years of the discussions, the United Kingdom played a vital role in paving the road for several regional organizations in Europe, beginning with the Treaty of London in 1949 which established the Council of Europe, followed by the admission into the European Economic Community (EEC), the official predecessor to the EU, alongside Denmark and Ireland in 1973. Two years after joining the EEC, the UK held a referendum to decide whether the country should remain in the organization, which resulted in a 67% approval of a continued membership.

1975 EEC Referendum

On June 5th, 1975, the UK held a referendum on whether it should remain in the EEC. With nearly all major political parties in favor of remaining in the EEC, except for an anti-European faction within the ruling Labour party, the referendum resulted in the continuation of the UK membership by an overwhelming majority.

Euroscepticism in the UK

Over the following decades, euroscepticism gained significant traction in the UK under the leadership of the Conservative Party and renowned British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who had supported the UK’s EEC membership in the 1975 referendum but vocally opposed the concept of European integration at large. In 1991, the growing sentiment of euroscepticism led to the foundation of the Anti-Federalist League, a minor cross-party coalition against the UK’s involvement in European integration, which would later rename itself as the UK Independence Party (UKIP). In 1992, the UK signed the Maastricht Treaty, a pillar structure which effectively created the European Union and the single-currency zone, though it opted out of joining the Euro currency and social chapter in order to preserve its autonomy. September 16th, 1992, the date on which the UK decided to leave the British pound out of the proposed currency system, has since become known as “Black Wednesday.” The UK’s opt-out decision was later weakened with the signing of the Lisbon Treaty under Tony Blair’s leadership in 1997, but euroscepticism saw a resurgence during the early 2010s following the rise of the Conservative Party’s David Cameron to power.

Notable Developments

Proposal of 2016 EU Referendum

After the Conservative Party’s victory in the 2010 general election, UK Prime Minister David Cameron formally announced his support for a referendum on the nation’s EU membership since as early as in 2013, following through with the pledge he had frequently made during his campaign. Following his re-election to the office in 2015, Cameron re-negotiated several aspects of the UK’s membership in February 2016 and announced that the referendum, which will determine whether or not the United Kingdom will stay as a member or leave the EU completely, would be held on June 23rd, 2016.

Brexit

Brexit, a portmanteau of “Britain” and “Exit,” refers to the hypothetical departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union. Stemming from the term “Grexit”, which was introduced by Citigroup’s chief analysts Willem H. Buiter and Ebrahim Rahbari in February 2012 to describe a similar scenario in Greece that was gaining public support during the country’s prolonged financial crisis, the earliest use of the word “Brexit” can be found in a tweet posted by British Influence, a UK think tank group that generally advocates Eurocentrism, on May 15th, 2012 (shown below).

About a month later on June 21st, The Economist^[19] ran an article titled “A Brixit looms,” introducing the term to a larger audience.

The chances of Britain leaving the EU in the next few years are higher than they have ever been. A Brixit looms for several reasons.

Campaigns

There are two main political campaigns associated with the UK’s upcoming referendum on the EU membership: Vote Leave^[2], the official advocacy campaign in support of leaving the EU, and Britain Stronger in Europe^[3], the official advocacy campaign in favor of remaining in the EU.

Brexit Supporters

The Vote Leave campaign is supported by several prominent figures within the Conservative Party, including Boris Johnson (Former Mayor of London) and Michael Gove (Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice), virtually all members of the UK Independence Party and a minor faction within the Labour Party known as “Labour Leave,” as well as supporters of two other pro-Brexit campaigns, Grassroots Out and Leave.eu.^[1] Other notable advocates of Brexit include actor Michael Caine^[4], professional cricket player Ian Botham^[4], former English football player Sol Campbell^[6], as well as the British news outlets The Daily Mail and Daily Express.

Pro-EU Supporters

The “Britain Stronger” campaign is supported by several leading members of the Conservative Party, including David Cameron (Prime Minister), George Osborne (Chancellor of the Exchequer) and Theresa May (Home Secretary), as well as the leaders of the Labour Party, Liberal Democrats, Green Party of England and Wales and Scottish National Party (SNP). Other notable supporters include actor Emma Thomson^[4], Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson^[4] and Stephen Hawking.^[5]

Campaign Highlights

“Britain’s Coming Home”

On February 22th, 2016, Mandy Boylett, a former candidate of UKIP in the 2015 general election, uploaded a video to YouTube featuring her appearing as two women, one with a blond wig, singing a pro-Brexit parody version of the song “Three Lions”, the official anthem of the English football team. The video was highlighted by major news media outlets, such as Daily Mail^[7] and the Huffington Post, which called it the worst song to come from British politics yet,^[8] and Daily Express.^[9] One of the singers of the original song, David Baddiel, said that while he and Frank Skinner, the other singer, did not give permission for the parody to be made, they might have done it due to it being “brilliantly naff”.^[10] As of May 2016, the song has over 575,000 views on Youtube.

Barack Obama’s Speech

On April 24st, 2016, President of the United States Barack Obama held a press conference with David Cameron during his visit to the United Kingdom. Obama said during the conference, that if the UK were to leave the European Union, a trade deal with the US could take up to ten years to make.^[40] Obama was afterwords criticised by the leave campaign for trying to intervene in another country’s affair^[41]. On April 28th, four days after Obama’s press conference, a poll put leave ahead of the remain campaign.^[42]

David Cameron’s WWIII Statement

On May 9th, 2016, David Cameron, speaking to a crowd at the British Museum in London, claimed that leaving the EU may cause Europe to descend into war:

“Can we be so sure peace and stability on our continent are assured beyond any shadow of doubt? Is that a risk worth taking? I would never be so rash to make that assumption… What happens in our neighbourhood matters to Britain. That was true in 1914, 1940, 1989…. and it is true in 2016.”

Cameron’s remark was reported on by major news media such as the Telegraph^[27], The Guardian^[28], the Mirror^[29] and the Daily Mail^[30]. Boris Johnson quickly responded and said that “I think all this talk of World War Three and bubonic plague is totally demented frankly.”^[31]

Battle of the Thames

On June 15th, 2016, in an event organized by Fishing for Leave, UKIP Leader Nigel Farage, Conservative minister George Eustice and Labour MP Kate Hoey, led a pro-Leave flotilla up the River of Thames, with the boats filled with pro-Leave flags and banners. Later, pro-remain campaigner Bob Geldorf showed up alongside a pro-remain flotilla and tried to hijack the protest. The two flotillas then started “attacking” each other, spraying one another with water and the Remain side blasting the brexit side with music. The so-called “Battle of the Thames” was highly mocked on Twitter.^[32]

Murder of Jo Cox

On June 16th, 2016, Jo Cox, member of the British Parliament for the Labour Party, was murdered in West Yorkshire as she was making her way to the local Library where she was supposed to speak. The attacker, armed with a knife and a gun, managed to stab and shot Jo Cox, before he was tackled by witnesses. The suspect of the attack, Thomas Mair, had been having a serious case of mental illness for several years, Mair’s brother says.^[33] Although some media claimed that the attacker had shouted “Britain first”, the name of a far-right political party in the UK, when he attacked Jo Cox, some eyewitnesses deny that claim. One who supported the claim was found to be a member of the British National Party, which are known to be hostile towards Britain First.^[34] The murder was widely condemned by British politicians from both side of the political spectrum. Prime Minister David Cameron called the attack “tragic and dreadful”^[35], while Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party called the attack an “attack on democracy”.^[36] Other countries, such as the Czech Republic^[37], Canada^[38] and Australia^[39], also gave their condolences. In addition, UK Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn showed up together to lay flowers as a tribute to Jo Cox. Other party leaders, such as UKIP Leader Nigel Farage, also showed up with flowers.

#CatsAgainstBrexit and #CatsForBrexit

On June 18th, 2016, Scottish internet law scholar Lilian Edwards^[21] tweeted a photograph of her cat with the hashtag #CatsAgainstBrexit and an anti-Brexit message urging others in the camp to retweet the message with pictures of their own cats.

By June 20th, #CatsAgainstBrexit^[22]^[24] and #CatsForBrexit^[23]^[25] began making the rounds on UK’s Twitter and Instagram as hundreds of British internet users made their final push in campaigning for and against Brexit with photographs of cats, including British conservative politician and member of the European Parliament (MEP) Daniel Hannan^[26] who tweeted a pro-Brexit message using a photograph of Grumpy Cat (shown below, top left). Hannan’s tweet garnered more than 1,200 retweets and 2,200 likes within the first 48 hours.

The Referendum

At 7:00 a.m. (BST, local time) on June 23rd, 2016, the EU membership referendum commenced at 41,000 polling stations across 382 local counting areas in all four countries of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales) and Gibraltar. The referendum ended at 10:00 p.m. (BST, local time)

#DogsAtPollingStations

On June 23rd, as the referendum went underway across Britain, many voters began sharing images of their dogs sitting outside the polling stations using the hashtag #DogsAtPollingStations, a photo fad that originally went viral on the day of the UK general election in May 2015.

Tony Blair’s “I Voted Remain” Sign

Also on June 23rd, former British prime minister Tony Blair reaffirmed his support for continued membership in the EU by sharing a picture of himself holding a sign that read “I Voted Remain” via his official Twitter account. Within minutes of the tweet, some UK Twitter users responded to Blair’s message with a handful of photoshopped parodies.

The Result

Throughout the day on June 23rd, more than 33 million voters participated in the referendum (or 71.8% of all registered voters in the UK), which marked the highest turnout for a national vote since the 1992 general election. By close to midnight on June 23rd, within two hours of the closure of the polling stations, several major British news outlets and international news agencies had begun reporting that votes calling for UK’s exit from the EU were leading with 52% of total ballots counted. Ultimately, the referendum resulted in an overall decision to leave the European Union with 51.89% of the total votes.

Online Reactions

By the early morning on June 24th, virtually all the major social media platforms had become flooded with varying reactions to the announcement of the referendum results, which led several Brexit-related hashtags to trend globally on Twitter and Facebook.

Meanwhile, Google Trends^[52] provided a comprehensive report on search queries relating to the referendum. According to Google, “What is Brexit” was one of the most searched questions during the hours leading up to the day of the referendum and “What is the EU?” quickly became the second most searched term about the European Union in the UK following the announcement of the poll results on June 24th.

Online Petitions

Within hours of the announcement of the results, tens of thousands of British internet users in the Remain camp began flocking to online petitions calling for a second round of referendum on Britain’s exit from the European Union, including one that had been started by William Oliver Healey, a pro-Brexit advocate and member of the English Democrats, a month before the referendum took place. By 10:40 p.m. on June 28th, Healey’s petition had attracted more than four million signatures, about forty times the minimum threshold for any petition to be considered for debate in the Parliament. The sudden influx of petitioners, which reached a thousand signatures per minute at one point, eventually prompted the website to crash on several occasions.

Impact

UKIP’s Response

When it had become clear that the Leave side had a sizable lead over the Remain campaign, Nigel Farage made a speech, stating that the referendum “is a victory for real people, a victory for ordinary people, a victory for decent people.” The next morning, Farage said that he was hoping that other countries would be leaving the EU, pointing out the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden as examples of countries that may leave the European Union.

David Cameron’s Resignation

As a result of the referendum, UK Prime Minister David Cameron announced that he would resign from the office of Prime Minister at the Conservative Party’s conference in October 2016.

International Spin-Offs

In the following week, the ripple effects from the UK referendum inspired several copycat movements overseas, including #Texit (Texas’ secession from the United States), #Frexit (French withdrawal from the EU), #Czexit (Czech withdrawal from the EU), #Pexit (Polish withdrawal from the EU ), among others.

#Calexit

Following the election of Donald Trump, a Californian movement to secede from the United States gained some traction. The movement, known as Yes California, promises a referendum that would be voted on in 2019.^[60] The campaign proposes splitting California up into 16 separate states (shown below).

The case is based on the premise that California would have the sixth largest GDP in the world, essentially making it a lesser world power. The campaign also argues that California would be more able to deal with education and health care problems within the state were they a sovereign nation.