Taking back control: the political implications of Brexit

The consequences of the BREXIT vote in June 2016 will take many years to be fully understood. The focus of the debate has shifted from whether there should be a BREXIT at all to what kind of BREXIT the UK should now seek to achieve. The result of the referendum and the Brexit election of 2017 has already had a profound effect on all the UK’s main political parties, and has raised difficult questions about Britain’s role in the world, its governance, its political economy, and the future of the United Kingdom. This article will assess the changes which have already taken place, and will ask whether BREXIT will have lasting consequences for British politics and British government. Will it come to be seen as a watershed in the political development of the UK, or only an episode in a continuous process of evolution?