London, June 23: Brexit fractured the European Union, and broke British politics.
The UK is about to get its seventh prime minister since June 23, 2016, a decade ago Tuesday, when the country voted 52%-48% to leave the EU after more than four decades of membership.
Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, who called the referendum but campaigned for the UK to stay in the bloc, quit the next day.
His successors have all grappled, largely unsuccessfully, with the consequences of that rupture. The latest is Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who announced Monday that he was stepping down after two years of a sluggish economy, malfunctioning government and a divided and jaded electorate – all legacies, at least in part, of Brexit.
Campaigners for Brexit promised that leaving the then-28 member political and economic bloc would let the UK “take back control” of its laws, economy and borders.
While the “remain” campaign focused largely on the economic downsides of exiting, the “leave” side was emotive.
Hard reality soon collided with Brexiteers’ bold promises of immigration controls, trade deals, more money for public services and an end to complex regulations emanating from Brussels. Acrimonious divorce talks dragged on for years. The UK formally left the bloc on Jan 31, 2020, followed by an 11-month transition period until the final split.
Prime Minister Theresa May, Cameron’s successor, quit in 2019 after failing to find exit terms acceptable to a divided Parliament.
Boris Johnson succeeded May and promised to “get Brexit done,” and managed to secure a bare-bones trade deal after negotiations that left UK-EU relations in the deep freeze.
He was ousted by the Conservative Party in mid-2022 after mounting financial and ethical scandals. His replacement, Liz Truss, lasted just 49 days in office.
Her successor, Rishi Sunak, thawed the frosty EU relationship without making major changes.
Starmer promised a “reset”, but refused to consider rejoining the bloc’s frictionless single market, which was free of tariffs and other trade barriers.
As he hands over power, Brexit remains unfinished business. (AP)
