The vote that broke Britain: What we haven’t learnt ten years on since Brexit

It has now been ten years since the electorate decided through an in-out referendum to leave the European Union. Very few a decade ago knew the extent to which this vote (won by just 4 percent) would become a dark cloud looming over these islands, bringing turbulence to our politics and a decline to our prosperity.

After the result on June 24, 2016, Nigel Farage in his typical arrogance proclaimed that June 23, 2016, is to be known as “our Independence Day” – but ten years on, the problems created by Brexit are only just beginning to rear their ugly heads. The United Kingdom has been on the wrong track because of that vote, and those in politics and beyond do not seem to be learning the vital lessons that should have been learnt then. We have failed to fully acknowledge Brexit as a catastrophic mistake, we have let those that lied to the British people about the European Union into the heart of our politics, and we on the left and centre-left still ignore the evidence that unity in some areas might actually be better for the greater good.

Ten years on, it must surely be time to learn the lessons of the vote that broke Britain?

What’s more, is that one of the Leave campaign’s boldest claims has largely gone unchecked

One of the most central things not yet learnt from this referendum and the eventual departure from the EU in January 2020, is just how damaging it has been for this country. While Brexit’s damage to areas like our political landscape and international relations can be debated, its impact on our economy has repeatedly been spelled out in black and white, leaving 6 in 10 believing Brexit to be a failure in a recent YouGov poll.

We should in no way be surprised by that. On the surface alone, Brexit caused a significant fall in trading with our largest single trading partner. Brexit checks resulted in food prices soaring, impacting families and businesses across our country, and the UK’s long-term productivity has fallen by more than 4 percent.

What’s more, is that one of the Leave campaign’s boldest claims has largely gone unchecked. While the NHS was notoriously promised an extra £350 million a week on the side of a bus, they instead lost thousands of EU-trained nurses and doctors, and the NHS was placed under even more strain. Brexit has damaged our economy, it’s why the UK’s GDP, as Nick Bloom says, is 6-8% lower than it would have been without Brexit, that should be the first thing we have to admit a decade on.

Ten years on from the referendum, we have also failed to learn that some individuals only want to divide and harm this country. In 2016, Nigel Farage was largely contained in his Brexit and UKIP bubble, failing to win a seat in the 2015 General Election. In 2026, that same man who had exaggerated immigration to voters throughout the referendum campaign is now in the House of Commons leading Reform UK leading in the polls. To put it concisely, ten years on we have failed to hold those like Farage, that brought this country to its knees, to account.

We have failed to learn that we must hold those who have damaged this country to account

In 2026, Farage, Boris Johnson, Dominic Cummings, and more, have hardly been held responsible for their lies and actions in the Brexit years, with much of the media brushing past the fact that they have been the vessels which has brought Britain to its knees and curated the political and cultural divisiveness we see in Britain today. They have instead continued to make Farage a prominent guest on TV panels and as Ed Davey has claimed, given Farage much more airtime than parties like the Lib Dems. Additionally, Farage’s Brexit claims about immigration have been far from debunked.

As we look back at the damage inflicted on this country by Brexit over the last decade, we must remember that those who initiated such decline are now at the very centre of our politics, looking with one eye at the top job inside Number 10, and looking at how they can stoke more division for political gain with the other. We have failed to learn that we must hold those who have damaged this country to account.

While the right was predominantly responsible for the outcome of the Brexit referendum and the subsequent departure from the European Union, the left and centre-left have also failed to draw a valuable lesson from the referendum: that unity amongst the left is necessary to defeat the populist right.

One of the British left’s key failures of the referendum campaign was arguably its lack of unity. While Leave had the strength of big figures like Farage and Johnson, Remain needed unity to counter this force. Yet key figures on the left were reluctant to put aside their political differences. Interviews with Jeremy Corbyn and others in the recent BBC Two documentary Brexit: A Very British Civil War, shows that Corbyn refused to put on a unified front with past Labour leaders and other party leaders like David Cameron within Remain. While Corbyn states his reasons for this, many have come to believe that Corbyn’s lack of unity in this campaign gave the Remain campaign fractures which those like Farage could exploit.

The same voices that drove us out of Europe are potentially now driving us towards something worse

But ten years on, we still haven’t learnt that our biggest weakness on the left is how divided we are. In the last year alone, we have failed to see that we must come together in the fight against Reform with cooperation over certain issues failing to take place. One of the reasons we lost Brexit is because of our lack of unity against Farage, we must not let that repeat itself as we head towards the next General Election.

Ten years on from that June morning, as the country woke up to the result that Britain had chosen to leave the EU by 52 percent, we find ourselves at a similar crossroads. The same voices that drove us out of Europe are potentially now driving us towards something worse. Ten years on, are we finally going to make the decision to learn from Brexit, or will it continue to haunt the next decade of our politics?