Happy birthday Brexit: 10 years of debate and reclaiming democracy
The anniversary of that historic vote is a welcome opportunity to reflect on what has changed, what the future might bring – and why we still need to keep talking.
Thursday 23 June 2016 will go down as one of the most important dates in British political history. That’s not just because it is the day we voted to leave the European Union, momentous as that was. It’s also because it was the day that many millions of people discovered that they still had a political voice.
In many ways, the resignation of Keir Starmer yesterday is part of the process unleashed by the vote for Brexit. While there have been rumblings for months that Starmer was on his way out, Labour MPs sat on their hands until the local elections in May. When the results were disastrous for Labour, things moved fast. Having been handed an overwhelming majority in July 2024, voters were not going to tolerate Labour’s multiple failures. Voters now have little loyalty to the old parties, with Reform UK leading the polls.
Obviously, Brexit and its many impacts has been part of many discussions and debates that the Academy of Ideas has organised both before the vote and since. Below is a selection of recordings and articles.
Of course, the best place to continue the debate is at this year’s Battle of Ideas festival on 17 & 18 October in Westminster. We will be reflecting back and also looking forward to how we can realise the aspirations of Brexit, changing politics for good, and what taking back control really means. Get tickets here:
BEFORE THE VOTE
European Referendum: what will decide the vote?
17 May 2016
Frustrated by the shallowness of much of the debate, the Institute of Ideas (as we were called then) organised a public debate at London’s Goodenough College, featuring David Davis MP, journalists Simon Nixon and Bruno Waterfield, and economist Vicky Pryce.
THE PAINFUL PROCESS OF LEAVING
Podcast of Ideas: What next for Brexit?
17 March 2017
After Parliament approved the triggering of Article 50, pro-Remain journalist Ian Dunt and legal commentator Luke Gittos debated what should happen next.
Listen via Substack
Podcast of Ideas: Brexit special
21 December 2018
With Brexit becoming stuck in Parliament, Claire Fox, Rob Lyons and Jacob Reynolds got together to discuss what might happen next.
Listen via Substack
Brexit: a revolution by or against the establishment?
Battle of Ideas festival 2019
Speakers: Lisa Mckenzie, Professor Anand Menon, Daniel Moylan, Bruno Waterfield
After Brexit: the new political faultlines
Battle of Ideas festival 2019
Speakers: Lord Maurice Glasman, Joan Hoey, Christian May, Professor Anand Menon
Reclaiming Democracy: The Left Case for Sovereignty
Claire Fox and Henrik Overgaard-Nielsen
As fellow Brexit Party MEPs elected in 2019 to push for the UK to finally leave the EU, Claire Fox and Henrik Overgaard-Nielsen produced this short booklet, comprising 10 essays by left-wing Brexit-supporting authors. It’s still available to read via Claire’s website.
Read Reclaiming Democracy
AFTER BREXIT
Letters on Liberty: The Sovereign Subjects of History
Claire Fox
February 2021
Published in the wake of both Brexit and the Covid lockdowns, Claire Fox argues that it is incumbent on all of us to reclaim the notion of sovereignty as the essential precondition of political change. She argues that one of the demands embedded in the Brexit referendum of 2016 – to ‘take back control’ – is a vital element of free, democratic life.
Read The Sovereign Subjects of History
Running back to EU? Labour, Europe and the economy
Battle of Ideas festival 2024
Speakers: Catherine McBride, Ali Miraj, Dr Thomas Sampson, Gawain Towler
Happy birthday, Brexit!
31 January 2025, Academy of Ideas Substack
Claire Fox argues that five years on from the UK’s departure from the EU, Brexit remains an enormous achievement in giving voters back their power and stopping the political class from deflecting away its failure.
Read on Substack
The Brexit Debate
17 June 2026
The Spectator live debate on the motion ‘This house believes that Brexit was a mistake’.
Dominic Grieve and Matthew Parris argued for the motion, while Claire Fox and Michael Gove argued against.
Brexit: The Facts Strike Back
Edited by Robert Tombs and Graham Gudgin
There has been a 10-year campaign, still continuing, to persuade the British public that they made the wrong decision in 2016, and that they should have listened to those politicians, intellectuals and ‘experts’ who told them to vote Remain. Yet much of what we have been told, and are still being told, has no basis in evidence, and it is often provably wrong. Resolving the biggest political issue of our time needs facts, not propaganda, and this book gives them.
Buy via Amazon
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Claire Fox is a member of the advisory board of Britain Unbound, which brings together independent thinkers from across politics and public life, united by a shared belief: that Britain needs clear thinking, a long-term vision, and the confidence to challenge the prevailing narrative. This cross-party and multi-sector endeavour gives a unique capacity to inform and to advise.