BERLIN – It is only partially a coincidence that the 10th anniversary of the Brexit referendum — the event that provoked a toxic polarization of British politics — was marked by another political casualty: the resignation of U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Starmer is leaving with characteristic dignity, but without having delivered on the promise he made two years ago to revive the British economy. One key reason for his failure was Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union. Just recently, a major study put the cost of Brexit at 6% to 8% of the U.K.’s gross domestic product over the decade since the vote. Given such eye-watering costs, it should come as no surprise that the British public’s thinking about the relationship between the United Kingdom and continental Europe has undergone a quiet revolution since 2016.
To be sure, you wouldn’t know it from following intergovernmental negotiations or debates in the media. Politicians in London and across EU capitals insist that almost nothing has changed. Many of the faces are even the same. Nigel Farage’s Reform party is leading the polls in the U.K. and the Labour government still refers to previous governments’ “red lines” vis-a-vis Europe.
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