RT Book, Section
T1 The long & winding road to Brexit
T2 The long and winding road to Brexit
A1 Pass, Jonathan
K1 Brexit
K1 United Kingdom
K1 European Union
K1 Euroscepticism
K1 Neoliberalism
K1 Social inequality
K1 Political realignment
K1 Identity politics
AB After nearly five decades of membership, the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union was less a sudden aberration than the political crystallisation of deep-seated class and identity cleavages within British society. Although the 52 per cent vote to leave in June 2016 was widely portrayed as an unforeseen rupture, it reflected long-standing tensions in Britain’s uneven incorporation into European integration, as well as fractures within the country’s governing elites. This chapter approaches Brexit as the outcome of a reconfiguration of social forces. It first traces Britain’s historically ambivalent relationship with Europe from the post-war settlement through the neoliberal turn, highlighting how successive governments mediated competing fractions of capital and labour. It then analyses the referendum conjuncture itself, focusing on party strategy, intra-elite conflict, and the mobilisation of popular discontent. The final section places particular emphasis on the interaction between material grievances and identity formation, arguing that rising inequality, regional marginalisation, and the erosion of social protections created fertile ground for narratives centred on sovereignty, nation, and belonging. Brexit can thus be understood not simply as a revolt against Brussels, but as a moment in which underlying class grievances were channelled through nationalist and cultural frames.
PB Aranzadi
SN 978-84-1345-740-6
YR 2022
FD 2022
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10433/26172
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10433/26172
LA en
NO Un Mundo en Continua Mutación: Desafíos desde el Derecho Internacional y el Derecho de la UE. Liber Amicorum Lucía Millán Moro, págs. 931-950
NO Departamento de Derecho Público
DS RIO
RD Jun 20, 2026