Five years after divisive referendum, Brexit continues to plague pandemic-hit Britain
- ‘This government got Brexit done and we’ve already reclaimed our money, laws, borders and waters,’ said Britain’s Boris Johnson on Wednesday
- Britons voted by a narrow margin of 52-48 to leave the EU in 2016. Today, Britain remains bound by reams of EU-era legislation
Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday extolled Britain’s decision to “take back control of our destiny”, five years after a divisive Brexit referendum whose political and economic aftershocks are still reverberating.
The coronavirus pandemic has masked the trade dislocation caused by the referendum of June 23, 2016, in which a slim majority voted to end five decades of integration with the European mainland.
The benefits promised by Johnson for a newly invigorated “Global Britain” remain a work in progress, while the UK’s own cohesion is at risk from an emboldened nationalist movement in pro-EU Scotland.
But the Conservative prime minister, who rode to power after years of post-referendum political paralysis, remains upbeat.
“Five years ago the British people made the momentous decision to leave the European Union and take back control of our destiny,” Johnson said.
“Now as we recover from this pandemic, we will seize the true potential of our regained sovereignty to unite and level up our whole United Kingdom.