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Law enforcement cooperation between the United Kingdom and the European Union has experienced substantial change. The practice and impact of police cooperation are aligned with various formal and informal arrangements previously based on a European framework, policy, legislation and process. Following Brexit, the United Kingdom became detached from some of these arrangements. Opposing sides of the Brexit debate argued that the implications of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union would result in outcomes ranging from improved police cooperation to fundamental damage to law enforcement combating cross-border and organised crime. While it is acknowledged that more change will occur in the policy and legislative framework that governs police cooperation between the United Kingdom and the European Union, this article explores the current situation from the perspective of interview accounts from police practitioners (n = 14) and academics (n = 3) working in the field. This article applied 'nodes of governance' to police cooperation between the United Kingdom and European Union. This article demonstrates a range of issues that have impeded the ability of the United Kingdom to work with its former partners. At the same time, good police relations remain, and informal police cooperation continues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2016, the UK voted to leave the European Union (EU). This outcome was not only unexpected but also had clear geographical and age‐bound divisions. While people over the age of 65 tended to vote to leave, younger voters were more likely to vote to remain a part of the EU. Reflecting on 7 years of journalism, this paper explores the ways in which young people have been represented by the news media with regards to the issue of Brexit. It analyses a database of 700 news media articles published from 2016 to 2022 across the UK, equating to 100 articles per calendar year and ranging from regional sources to those with an international reach. The paper showcases how young people occupy liminal spaces within the news media through an analysis of the language used to describe their political participation, and a focus on their role within political activism. As it is this media that dominates hegemonic narratives within traditional political spheres, the retelling and representation of young people's engagement serves, we argue, to reinforce their liminality as citizens apart. Reflecting on 7 years of journalism and analysing 700 news media articles related to Brexit and young people, this paper showcases how these media reinforce the liminal spaces occupied by this demographic in political discourse. As it is this media that dominates hegemonic narratives within traditional political spheres, the retelling and representation of young people's engagement serves, we argue, to reinforce their liminality as citizens apart. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 23 June 2016, the people of the UK voted to leave the European Union. This article examines how Brexit impacted international student applications. Using administrative data along with a difference-in-differences approach, we find that Brexit curtailed the growth rate of international student applications by 7 per cent even before tuition fees had changed, ultimately lowering enrolment as well. The impact is larger for applications to pursue STEM studies, as well as for those from countries with worse employment prospects and weaker economies, hinting on students' ability to stay long-term in the UK as an important pull factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is an attempt to present, develop, and deploy the use of the concept of "unpolitics" in relation to Brexit. The article starts with an outline of the concept of unpolitics and then turns to its application to Brexit. The argument is that in the politics of Brexit, specifically in the appeal of part of the "leave" campaign and in the behaviour and appeal of Johnson, we can identify unpolitics as playing a significant role. For the "Vote Leave," we can identify unpolitical tropes as explicit elements of the campaign. Also, during Johnson's premiership and his campaign in the 2019 general election, the appeal and behaviour exhibited elements of unpolitics. Johnson's political demise was not due to Brexit, Covid-19, or Putin but represented the playing out of his unpolitics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the aftermath of Brexit's referendum polls, there were many predictions as to what its impact would be for the United Kingdom. While its socio-economic consequences have often featured as the main topic of discussion, this may lead to people overlooking its significance regarding its redefining of the British political community. One social field in particular which may see these dynamics play out is sports. More particularly, looking at England's favourite pastime, football and its top division, the Premier League, can be quite revealing in understanding how sports can contribute to defining the nation. Following from this idea, the theoretical framework of boundary-making processes is applied to the Premier League and its Brexit contextualisation. The findings from this approach demonstrate the government's underlying efforts in redefining the country's political community away from Europe through the sports regulation changes associated with Brexit. However, these are also found to be mitigated by the influence of external actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we theorize the 2016 Brexit referendum as a critical juncture in UK politics and analyse its effects on devolution using the concept of regional authority. We argue that Brexit raised the option of re-balancing the self-rule and shared rule dimensions of regional authority present in UK devolution. We generate hypotheses regarding parties' territorial strategies and test them against a content analysis of 2015 and 2017 UK general election manifestos. We demonstrate that proposals dealing with shared rule grew between 2015 and 2017, within the context of consistency in parties' overall territorial positioning. The governing Conservatives also offered more proposals on shared rule but not ones that increased devolved influence. Overall, they moved from favouring an increase in regional authority in 2015 to the cusp of maintaining existing regional authority and somewhat reducing it in 2017. This helps to explain whypost-Brexit UK government policy in practice maintained a primary focus on self-rule within a general approach of limiting the further growth of regional authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of Brexit on Northern Ireland (NI) is now well established; however, less attention has been given to the impact on women, despite the applicability of the Women, Peace and Security agenda. In this policy commentary, we detail the impact Brexit has had on the issue of violence against women in NI. This is timely, given that the NI Executive Office has developed an Ending Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategic Framework, of which the adoption was identified as a priority on the resumption of the NI Assembly in February 2024. In addition to the repercussions of 'Brexit politics' resulting in the suspension of Stormont, which stymied the adoption of the strategy, we examine what has been lost in terms of funding, data collection, benchmarking and legal protections, all of which contribute to addressing VAWG in NI. We conclude with policy points to address the issues arising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that shifts in the UK's territorial management practice in the late 2010s and early 2020s, described by various terms, including 'muscular unionism', may be more rhetorical and ideational than substantive. The practices associated with these terms are recognisably part of the 'British political tradition', and the changes of the early 2020s can be viewed as reasserting traditional governance practices rather than introducing new ones. The article examines the various phenomena described as 'muscular unionism' and suggests that many are relatively ad hoc, low-level initiatives, often rhetorical. There is also much evidence that the UK governments of the 2020s see the 'Millennium Settlement', introduced in 1999, as continuing to be a core part of UK territorial management. The clearest break from historical practice comes in the overt, explicit quality of 'muscular unionist' rhetoric. The article then suggests that, contrary to some scholarly expectations, this muscular unionist turn may come to be an effective territorial management strategy for the UK government, as it aligns with an Anglo-British imaginary within England that continues to conflate England, Britain and the UK in terms of governance and national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bilateral trade relationships between countries vary across products. Such heterogeneity poses challenges when assessing the economic impacts of trade agreements. This paper estimates bilateral trade elasticities at the product level and explores these impacts using a hypothetical no‐deal Brexit as an example. Our findings indicate that the European Union's demand for the United Kingdom products is often less elastic compared to products from other trading partners. We also observed substantial heterogeneity in the elasticities across products and a negative correlation between these elasticities and tariffs. These factors mitigate extent of trade welfare losses compared to a scenario using homogeneous elasticities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public opinion scholarship suggests that Europeans broadly interpret Brexit as a cautionary fable rather than an encouraging blueprint to follow. Yet, Brexit singularly demonstrates the possibility of European disintegration, and is but one of multiple recent crises that have brought the potential for member state departures into focus. Drawing on new survey data from 16 countries and using logistic regressions, this article charts Europeans' perceptions of the likelihood future EU exits over the next decade. It finds evidence of asymmetric motivated reasoning: Euroscepticism and pro-Brexit views strongly associate with perceiving exits likely, while among Europhiles this association is only ameliorated, not reversed. This reveals two gaps with repercussions for understanding EU public opinion dynamics. First, between Eurosceptic policy elites' softened policy stances on exit and their supporters' steadfast sense that further departures remain likely. Second, between Europhiles' scepticism of Brexit and a residual lack of confidence in EU cohesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introduction to the special issue recalls the alarm raised in EU capitals and Brussels after the UK's in-out referendum delivered a Leave vote in June 2016. The fear was of a domino effect and the further fragmentation of an already divided EU. Seven years later, it is clear that there was rapid attrition of Eurosceptic triumphalism, and the EU-27 showed remarkable unity. This required a sustained collective effort to contain a membership crisis and maintain the EU polity. Yet, the issue contributors challenge the notion that the alarm was unfounded and explain why this counter-factual did not materialise, even though potential for future membership crises of different sorts was revealed. Theoretically, this supports an understanding of the EU as a polity that is fragile, yet able to assert porous borders, exercise authority over a diverse membership, and mobilise a modicum of loyalty when the entire integration regime is under threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A surprising feature of Brexit has been the united front the EU-27 presented during post-referendum negotiations. This membership crisis arrived when the EU had been facing multiple overlapping political and economic crises revealing deep cleavages both between and within member states. How did negotiations prevent a widening politicisation of European integration? In this article a novel dataset is used, containing national and European newspaper Brexit coverage between 2016 and 2020 to establish how negotiating stances were formed in key EU institutions and five influential member states: Ireland, Spain, France, Germany and Poland. The results indicate that the European Commission could maintain a strong, centralised negotiating position over Brexit because the preferences of these member states were mutually inclusive, their negotiating stances aligned, and each national case was subject to generally low levels of domestic politicisation. As a result, while Brexit shocked the EU, its immediate fallout could be contained even during uncertain times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key Eurosceptic argument is that countries can selectively retain only those aspects of European integration from which they benefit, while opting out of those aspects they dislike. How convincing is this "have your cake and eat it, too" argument to voters? This article argues that voters can learn about the feasibility of such a strategy by looking at the experience of countries that pursued a similar path. Positive experiences can strengthen voters' support for a similar strategy, while negative experiences can deter them. This argument is tested in a study of the effects of the Brexit negotiations on public opinion in Switzerland. Drawing on a panel survey fielded between 2019 and 2021, the article shows that Brexit had a small but non-negligible impact on Swiss voters' expectations about the EU's resolve, as well as on vote intentions on two EU-related policy proposals. These findings confirm that voters learn from foreign political developments about the costs of non-cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brexit constitutes a puzzle for integration theory. Functionalist analyses have not only failed to predict the UK's exit but have also underestimated the disintegrative dynamics of the withdrawal negotiations. By contrast, postfunctionalism accounts for the disintegrative Brexit process but struggles to explain the unity and defence of supranational integration among the EU-27. This article tries to make sense of the Brexit puzzle. First, it argues that Brexit constitutes an attack on the EU polity rather than a policy failure – the type of crisis that functionalist theories explain best. Second, it complements the postfunctionalist account of domestic politicisation with an analysis of the reactions and strategies of the defenders of supranational integration. According to this expanded postfunctionalist analysis, the interaction of polity attack and polity defence has produced 'external rebordering': extreme disintegration of the UK from the EU, on the one hand, and strengthened integration of the EU-27, on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After his re-election as the mayor of London, Khan underlined “the scars of Brexit” that are not healed yet. His political stance against leaving the EU has formed a critical interference of Khan in a foreign policy decision of national government. In the light of the literature on internationalisation of noncentral government, this study aims to explain Khan’s “actorness” in the aftermath of Brexit referendum by utilizing Hocking’s (1999) theoretical framework. Dimensions of the mayor’s involvement in the Brexit process are explained under the categories of initiators, channels and targets; yet a new grouping titled voices proposed by this study would complete the whole picture of analysis. The press releases derived from the official website of London government constitute the basis of research material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government competence in delivering outcomes is often regarded as foundational to political trust. However, in this article, a different competence dynamic is proposed; specifically, whether political trust is related to government efficiency in achieving promised policy objectives. This article argues that when policy objectives are polarizing, the effect of efficiency on political trust is conditional on whether individuals support or oppose the objective. Using the case of Brexit, where the promised policy objective of leaving the European Union was polarizing, it is hypothesized that Leave voters relative to Remain voters became more trusting in cases of efficiency and less trusting in cases of inefficiency. The predictions are supported through a difference-in-differences analysis of unique real-world data over time from the British Election Study. The findings have important implications for our understanding of Brexit and also inform how political trust relates to government competence in the case of polarizing political issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of campaigns on electoral performance is conditioned in part by contextual effects. The popularity equilibrium model has proven to be an important guide to how the electoral effects of local campaigns vary by a party's existing level of popularity. Such an equilibrium can, however be disturbed by an electoral shock—a rare event which fundamentally challenges the foundations that underpin predictability in elections. This article analyses the impact of the electoral shock of the UK's 2016 referendum on EU membership on campaign effects in the subsequent elections of 2017 and 2019. Using a novel theoretical and methodological approach, it shows that while there were observable effects of the Leave vote already present before the referendum, the geography of the effectiveness of Labour and Conservative local campaigns was altered after the referendum. However, it was not until the 2019 election that the shock of the 2016 Leave vote became a particularly important predictor of the electoral efficacy of both parties' campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We estimate the short run effects of Brexit border disruption on the UK economy. We estimate a structural VAR for the UK, where Brexit effects are identified by the dates of Brexit events, the referendum, and the exit from the single market. We find evidence of short run effects of Brexit: temporary effects on GDP, exports and imports (slightly negative), and on inflation and interest rates (slightly positive). These effects are consistent with modest disruption from introducing a border with the EU--a border due to be made barrier-free and seamless by the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement. Previous work using other countries as comparators is vulnerable to identification difficulties. We also survey earlier modeling work on the long run effects of evolving policies of free trade, UK-sourced regulation, and liberalized immigration. Models of long run trade suggest the emergence of substantial gains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2020, the UK officially withdrew from the EU (Brexit), ending its obligation to continue the EU's retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products. Recent actions by the UK government suggest that these retaliatory tariffs will eventually be eliminated. We present a dynamic modeling framework and estimate whiskey demand in the UK by source (e.g., U.S. whiskey, Irish whiskey, etc.). Estimates are then used to simulate the impacts of the retaliatory tariff on U.S. whiskey. If the tariff is eliminated, U.S. whiskey exports to the UK should fully recover and could even exceed pre-trade war levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the 2009 sovereign debt crisis to the 2022 Russian full-scale war in Ukraine, the EU has experienced a succession of intersecting crises, or a 'polycrisis'. We examine how this polycrisis has impacted the EU's role in security and defence. While the EU's competences in security and defence have long suffered from disagreements among member states, they have shown notable developments since Brexit, and most importantly, since the 2022 war in Ukraine. We make a two-step argument to shed light on why the polycrisis has had these differentiated effects over time. The first move we make is to unpack the polycrisis to explain why and when an increase in competences may take place. We single out two crises that offer pathways for positive politicisation, leading to increased cooperation and competences: an external military threat and an internal crisis in the form of the loss of a major veto player. In a second step, we argue that the existence of an alternative organisation, NATO, helps us explain where and what cooperation can take place. Shared military threats can lead to complementary rather than substitutive empowerment at least during the duration of the crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the first systematic evidence on the impact of Brexit on the business links between the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU) through the lens of international visits. We find important asymmetry in the direction of changes in business visits between the two regions following the referendum. Specifically, we observe a significant drop in EU‐to‐UK trips, while UK‐to‐EU trips increased noticeably after the vote. These results support the claim that Brexit has made the UK less attractive to EU businesses, but also reveal that UK businesses are investing more in their relationships with EU partners to offset the uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reexplores Ireland’s final exit from the Commonwealth in 1948–49, deploying Brexit as a comparative heuristic and organising device. The existing literature has stressed both Ireland’s symbolic motives in fully breaking with the Crown and how it retained many the advantages of Commonwealth membership whilst avoiding its obligations. It is true that, at least from the later 1930s, Ireland was more akin to an associate as opposed to a full Commonwealth member and that both significant support for the Irish position from Commonwealth members with large Irish diaspora populations and decentralisation in the Commonwealth itself made for a relatively hospitable negotiating environment. Nevertheless, the Brexit comparison helps highlights the considerable trade and citizenship links, including with the UK, which were linked to Commonwealth association and which secession thereby put at risk. It similarly highlights the price Ireland paid for its exit including a public commitment to make reciprocal citizenship rights generally available to all Commonwealth members, a strengthening of Northern Ireland’s links with Great Britain and a loss of participation rights in key Commonwealth preference, Sterling Area and related fora. The ultimately rather limited significance of that price may relate more to a subsequent fundamental refocusing of both Irish and UK geographic priorities towards Europe in subsequent decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the Brexit-driven remaking of some EU families into mixed-status families. Drawing on original research conducted in 2021–2022 with British, EU/EEA and non-EU/EEA citizens living in the UK or the EU/EEA, it shows how families whose members have previously enjoyed equal rights to freedom of movement across the EU/EEA variously negotiate the consequences of Brexit on their lives. Central to our analysis is the interplay between hardening borders and the stickiness of family relations, and its effects on families' migration and settlement projects. The article brings to the fore these emerging entanglements offering a much-needed relational analysis of the impact of Brexit on the directly affected populations, while contributing more widely to expanding the existing scholarship on mixed-status families, by attending to the peculiar ways in which families whose members previously enjoyed equal status under EU law have experienced their transformation into subjects with unequal rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores some of the impacts of Brexit on governance in Northern Ireland. A devolved region administered by a fragile and often fractious consociational system, Brexit, and, in particular, the fundamental legislative mechanism through which Brexit is implemented, the December 2020 Northern Ireland Protocol, have worked to increase division across several levels - the inter-governmental, that of regional party politics, and that of grassroots, inter and intra-communal relations. To complicate matters further, that distrust has also markedly manifested itself in the growth of non-aligned political dynamics. Drawing on the work of Pierre Rosanvallon, I suggest that these developments can be conceptualized with reference to ideas about counter-politics and distrust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The repeated risk of the so-called hard Brexit created great uncertainty about the future of mutual EU-UK trade relations. In 2020, the uncertainty was exacerbated by the COVID-19 global pandemic. These critical situations affected the EU's external trade and, in particular, the EU export capacity. Therefore, in addition to the standard factors, such as GDP, labour productivity or the presence of the FTA determining EU exports, this paper examines those factors that were relevant for EU export between 2016 and 2020, i.e. the uncertainty stemming from Brexit and the global COVID-19 pandemic. Fixed and time effects panel data analysis combined with the difference in difference method and a Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood estimator were used. The negative impact of Brexit uncertainty on EU exports has not been proven. The COVID-19 pandemic, which caused a deep downturn in international trade in 2020, had a negative impact on EU exports. However, EU exports to all partners decreased significantly regardless of the COVID-19 prevalence. This study updates the literature on the nexus between uncertainty and trade by examining the recent critical factors affecting EU export developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates political decisions and epidemiological developments. Employing a quantitative approach, this paper examines proportions of votes advocating Brexit with the proportional rates of Covid-19 vaccinations among individuals aged 18 years and above. A discernible pattern suggests a link between lower vaccination rates and pro-Brexit inclinations, validating the theory of disinformation affecting decision-making. This research finds a correlative relationship between political behaviour in voting for Brexit, and epidemiological outcomes measured by the uptake of vaccinations among various urban centres, towns, and local governmental jurisdictions within the United Kingdom. However, the results also show socioeconomic control variables are statistically more significant in predicting vaccination rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, scholarship on postfunctionalism in European integration has drawn attention to how processes of Europeanisation are not restricted to policymakers, but exist equally (if not more significantly) in the quotidian. The 2016–2020 Brexit process and debates on the relationship between national identity and 'Europeanness' urge a new consideration of how Europeanisation is narrated in everyday discourses. This paper analyses British fictional portrayals of the EEC and EU and posits a new theoretical framework of 'Imperial Gothic 2.0'. Pre-2016 representations of the EU were entirely dystopian. But post-2016, Brex-Lit fiction has reversed this trend and the EU now appears as a flawless utopia. Early twentieth-century 'Imperial Gothic' saw popular fiction defined by themes of British decline and oppression by foreign powers; a century later, Brex-Lit has resurrected these themes by narrating Britain in terminal decline, reflecting cultural anxieties, a reversal of Self and Other, and a loss of identities. This 'Imperial Gothic 2.0' reveals anxieties which reflect and influence political action, and reveals the extent to which imaginations and narratives of the EU have transformed from depictions of a distant, technocratic entity used for comedy or conspiracy, into a site of intense emotional affiliation, nostalgia, anticipation, and regret. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union signified a new stage in their relations. The emergence of the UK as an autonomous sanctions actor has taken place in parallel with the world's backsliding in autocracy, human rights violations and armed conflicts. This article compares the EU's and the UK's newly-emerged sanctions policies on a case study of Belarus to find out to what extent they diverge if at all, exploring them on political, economic and legal grounds. As to the 'how' question, the article delves into a quantitative approach looking at a timeline, a number and a scope of designations; for the 'why' question the article identifies the overall sanctions goals pursued by each of the parties taken from the classification of Francesco Giumelli as 'coercive', 'constraining' or 'signalling'. The main conclusion of this article is that while the overall foreign policy principles are synchronised, the form and content of sanctions diverge. The EU and the UK perceived the salience of foreign policy events in Belarus differently, which resulted in divergent sanctions responses and therefore the goals of the sanctions. Despite the UK's more robust sanctions implementation and enforcement toolkit emerging after Brexit, the EU took leadership in the Belarus sanctions design. They did converge however in prioritising each main export commodity in granting licenses. This conclusion contributes to the discussion of the neighbouring countries' alignment with the EU's sanctions. It suggests delving deeper into the EU's heightened expectations regarding the alignment of other countries. The article argues that the leadership in sanctions is not 'static' by virtue of the appeal of the norms of the European Union but more dynamic – passing in the hands of those who create more innovative tools of sanctions design and implementations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Novel, unstructured, and high-stakes situations, such as Brexit, have been found to magnify the impact of personality on the performance of high-level political office. This article uses quantitative content analysis of Theresa May's verbal output to develop a profile of her characteristic approach to politics and leadership, and utilizes this profile to further our understanding of her actions during the Brexit negotiations. Using the well-established Leadership Trait Analysis technique, the article links May's political personality—her tendency toward black-and-white thinking, her high belief in her ability to control events, and her relative lack of facility with the political tools of influence and persuasion—to her guidance of the Brexit process. While avoiding a reductionist approach, subscribing neither to an "all agency" or "no agency" account of the prime minister's role in Brexit, the research does conclude that May's personality was a significant factor in shaping the course of Brexit during her time in office. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how a Powellite form of nostalgia – named for the anti-immigration politics of former British MP Enoch Powell – connects seemingly contradictory nationalist narratives known as Global Britain and Little England. While the former is typically aligned with an expansive and buccaneering national biography, the latter is held to operate via a more defensive and exclusionary imaginary. This article challenges such a binary distinction by demonstrating how the two discursive strands are intimately connected by nostalgic views about white English racial dominance, cultivated during Britain's pursuit of empire. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of verbal and visual sources from the Brexit referendum, plus 13 interviews with Leave campaigners, the article shows how Powellite nostalgia reproduces gendered and racialised colonial images of the nation amid immigration 'crisis'. Despite the detoxifying effects of much post-referendum Brexit analysis, the article also demonstrates how Powellite nostalgia is shared across the Eurosceptic spectrum and within broader English culture, persisting into the post-Brexit era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When former British Prime Minister Theresa May resigned in May 2019, in the first few days much mainstream and social media coverage focused on the tears she cried. Newspapers highlighted her tears as an extraordinary act for a politician. Her unexpected display of emotions was met with sympathy, sometimes even considered a feminist political moment, and often contextualised the framing of May's political legacy. Analysing UK mainstream tabloid and broadsheet coverage following May's resignation, this paper explores the media reactions in more detail. A dominant theme in the assessment of May's legacy was her perceived inability to "get Brexit done." Any deployment of feminist celebrations of public female tears was quickly overtaken by coverage that constructs May as politically and personally fragile, rooted in a known range of sexist tropes that associate femininity in politics with weakness. This "feminine weakness" is the opposite of what is needed to fulfil the Brexit project, which is often described in masculinist terms. Thus, Brexit is constructed as inherently masculine, and women are considered a threat to this project, highlighting the ways in which Brexit is mediated as a gendered political process. This article argues for greater attention to the role media play in the gendering of populist discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of Brexit is an important topic in European and British political agendas. In this study, we examine the effect of Brexit on the Portuguese labour market. We apply the synthetic control method to estimate how the number of UK citizens working in Portugal would have evolved if the Remain vote had won the referendum. Our results suggest that the Brexit referendum reduced the number of UK-dependent workers in Portugal, particularly in the case of non-university-educated, male individuals with temporary employment contracts. This reduction is explained by the decrease in the number of incomers. We also find that those UK citizens who were already working in Portugal before Brexit were more likely to continue working in the host country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special collection examines how immigration and asylum policies have evolved since Britain left the European Union. The referendum was won on the promise of 'taking back control', yet, since Brexit, immigration has increased to record levels and the nationalities of people coming to the UK have become more diverse. The increase in immigration was driven by a liberalisation of work and study visas and the creation of new humanitarian schemes. Although some aspects of immigration policy have evolved in a liberal direction, others have become increasingly restrictive. The Conservative government has pursued a draconian agenda on asylum, borders and irregular migration, including a scheme to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, and legislation that effectively abolishes the right to seek asylum in the UK. This introduction argues that recent immigration and asylum policies reflect the ambivalent, unstable and unresolved meanings of Brexit itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the European Union referendum in 2016, UK net migration has increased to record levels. Despite the Leave campaign's promise to 'take back control'—and a Conservative government that has adopted increasingly negative rhetoric about immigration—growing numbers of workers and international students have migrated to the UK. This apparent puzzle can be explained by examining the political economy of immigration policy. The UK economy is structurally dependent on migrants who take up jobs that British citizens shun and who address skills shortages caused by under‐investment in training and education, as well as international students who help finance UK universities. As free movement came to an end, the Johnson government responded by liberalising immigration policy selectively. More recently, political pressure from the right has prompted the Sunak government to adopt policies that restrict the rights of migrant workers, international students and many British citizens to live with their families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The British political landscape on immigration before Brexit had a number of stable features: the public disliked migration and politicians from both main parties tended to accept (if not actively support) higher migration levels than voters preferred. This mismatch generated electoral disruption when the issue rose up the agenda—in particular through mobilisation on the radical and far right—and this initially intense public scepticism was gradually being eroded by demographic change. Brexit has fundamentally changed this landscape, triggering major shifts in both public opinion and electoral competition over immigration. In this article, the past politics of immigration in Britain are reviewed, with an explanation of how and why Brexit prompted change. The implications of the new politics of immigration for the upcoming general election and beyond are also considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines British immigration policy in the run‐up to and after Brexit. It explains how the Conservatives presided over policies that demonised, demeaned and deported black Britons whilst admitting hundreds of thousands of immigrants they promised to keep out. This happened because of (a) how early postwar nationality policy interacted with subsequent immigration policy and (b) elite ignorance. The ensuing Windrush scandal resulted from the interaction of the British Nationality Act 1948 with Home Secretary Theresa May's hostile environment policy. Meanwhile, since Brexit, net immigration figures have doubled. This is because Conservative Home Secretary Priti Patel ended the free movement of EU citizens and authored a new immigration policy that utterly failed to consider the British economy's dependence on low‐skilled labour. The outcomes reflect profoundly on the British economy, on the history of nationality law, and on immigration policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses post‐Brexit asylum policy in the UK. On the surface, Brexit had little impact on asylum, but Brexit, combined with the new phenomenon of small boat Channel crossings, created the conditions for a new and extreme UK policy agenda. It explains how politicians have sought to deliver border sovereignty performatively after Brexit by introducing extreme measures, ostensibly—though not practically—to stop small boat Channel crossings, and how private actors have sought to profit from people seeking asylum within this policy regime. These interrelated political and financial interests are pursued irrespective of the fact that none of the policies being advanced will 'stop the boats'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Conservative Party has usually done well in rural areas, but its 'green wall' is now under threat from Labour more than the Liberal Democrats. Farmers did not support Brexit any more than the general population, and in income terms they are currently doing well, but fear for the future. In addition, food security issues are more complex than they are portrayed, as are the relations with the devolved governments. In Scotland, the government there is much more popular among Scottish farmers whilst the government in Wales is doing much worse among farming communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses data from six rounds of the European Social Survey (ESS), between 2004 and 2016, to examine attitudes towards European integration across countries. Using both individual responses and country-level variables, we analyse factors influencing Euroscepticism; how these factors are changing over time; and whether they may signal a latent potential for Brexit-like outcomes in different countries. Controlling for a unique combination of demographic, political and macroeconomic factors, we find individuals with higher levels of income and education, and those with more left-leaning political views to be more supportive of European integration, while those who are older and right-leaning to be less supportive. Using predicted values from our empirical analysis, we find median voters' attitudes diverging across European countries over time, with an increasing number of countries moving closer to the threshold values observed among voters in the United Kingdom in 2016. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The warnings about Turkey's not-so-near accession to the EU are explored as a strategic tool in the Brexit campaign, linking concerns about sovereignty and immigration compounded with the anxieties surrounding Islam and the threat of terrorism. Drawing on the theoretical framework of Edward Said's Orientalism and the unique perspectives gathered from British Turks, this paper sheds light on their nuanced responses. It uncovers strategies of disbelief and denial in the face of the constructed narrative that portrayed Turkey as an undesirable 'Other' with its predominantly Muslim population. A closer analysis of some British Turks' narratives is premised not only on the sacralised defence of the principles of Turkish westernisation but also on the socio-political reputation of the Islamic Ottoman past as almighty. The article equally contributes to a deeper understanding of the complex interplay between British national identity and discourses surrounding immigration, sovereignty, and Islamophobia within the context of Brexit, as well as the principles by which the privileges of modern, secular Turkey, as well as the demise of the mighty Ottoman image, are maintained. In a paradoxical manner, the act of denial only serves to affirm the Brexit campaign's narrative depicting Turkey as an undesirable 'Other' with a predominantly Muslim demographic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK’s exit from the European Union has had seriously negative consequences for the British economy and society. These consequences can be taken as a serious warning to other EU countries that may wish to follow Britain’s chosen path. The warning is particularly important as regards Poland, where the far right has long been openly calling for a so-called “Polexit”. The aim of this article is to analyse and assess both the current and expected effects of Brexit, as well as the conclusions that Poland can draw from them. After presenting the background of Brexit, this analysis focuses primarily on the effects that Great Britain has experienced in the areas of trade with the EU, along with Brexit’s effects on investment, inflation, immigration, and deregulation. Public opinion survey results are also shown, indicating a negative assessment of Brexit by the majority of British society, which is increasingly demanding the restoration of the country’s ties with the EU. Next, the threats to Poland’s further participation in the EU that have arisen since 2015 are shown. Based on Britain’s experience, it can be predicted that a possible Polexit may hit the Polish economy particularly hard, primarily due to the loss of free access to the EU’s single market and a possible collapse with regard to Polish exports, as well as the predicted massive outflow of capital abroad and decline in the inflow of foreign investments. A Polexit would also mean a loss of EU funding. All this would drastically limit Poland’s development possibilities and would trigger a civilisational degradation of the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the setting of the legal regime governing third country access to the UK financial market, in light of the political, market, and legal disruption associated with the UK withdrawal from the EU. It considers the UK reform context and the priority being given to securing UK financial market competitiveness, identifies a related and significant liberalization of the third country regime, and examines the implications for the UK, the EU, and for international financial market access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Kingdom's strategy for negotiating Brexit involved a misapprehension: that the EU-27 would divide and concede to UK demands. In this article, we provide one explanation for this misapprehension: a pervasive 'Merkel myth' widely accepted within the British political class. That myth skewed British understanding of the European Union's power balance and priorities. It privileged an interpretation of Merkel as a decisive influence in Europe, well-disposed to the UK. Alongside this was the belief that Merkel would come under pressure from Germany's manufacturing giants to grant the UK a relatively generous deal. The Merkel myth reinforced a political strategy that, by all accounts, never came close to success. Yet these beliefs affected the approach of three prime ministers. Employing the distinctive analytical lens of 'political myth' to explain the judgements of actors, the article contributes to a growing literature on the role of ideas in political strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In post-conflict societies, traumatic experiences can have a profound effect on electoral behaviour. In Northern Ireland, Westminster elections between 2001 and 2017 were marked by the rise of hardline parties, but the 2019 election saw a significant shift towards the centre. The centre ground vote soared, resulting in the lowest level of political polarisation since the early 2000s. What are the factors underlying this transition to a moderate vote? Drawing on public opinion surveys and electoral data, we find that Brexit played a crucial role in incentivising voters to support parties prioritising non-sectarian constitutional interests. The findings suggest that voters employ party competition as a balancing mechanism. Our article contributes to the understanding of how individuals in post-conflict societies navigate the complex relationship between violence, politics, and peacebuilding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do foreign political events shape voters' evaluation of policies whose outcomes are hard to observe? We argue that policy-specific political processes abroad provide information about the policy's feasibility and desirability that allows voters to update their preferences. We analyze how key events in British Brexit politics affected attitudes towards the European Union in other European countries. The results of 'unexpected events during survey' designs, a natural experiment, and a panel analysis show that events highlighting the difficulties of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union led to a higher support of European integration in remaining member states, whereas an event highlighting the opportunities of Brexit resulted in more Eurosceptic attitudes. The article demonstrates that foreign events can influence voters' policy attitudes in other countries, highlighting the systemic consequences of events like Brexit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a highly interconnected world, it is important to determine how local events happening somewhere can influence the course of action in a different place. The current study approaches Brexit' spillover effect across Europe regarding Euroscepticism and Europeans' attitudes towards the EU. Through a quasi-experimental methodology, we employed the data from the eighth and the ninth edition of the European Social Survey (ESS). After March 29, 2017, when Theresa May triggered the formal mechanism for the Brexit process, in distant UK places, public opinion shifted towards believing the EU unification had gone too far. The political placement (left/right leaning) predicted the shift, while the use of the internet and the self-reported happiness level significantly and positively impacted the support for remaining in the EU. Subjectively experiencing unemployment did not contribute to Euroscepticism, but it was positively correlated with unfavourable opinions about immigration. Conversely, the affection toward Europe increased for politically right-leaning respondents who considered that immigration harms the local state and should be reduced. Self-reported quality of life (health and happiness), greater internet use, and news media consumption lead to more favourable views toward immigration and the idea that immigrants enrich the local state. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed with public policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the 2016 EU referendum on Britain's membership in the European Union, many people described themselves as "Leavers" or "Remainers." Here, we examine the emotional responses associated with Brexit identities using survey data collected from two nationally representative samples of the British public in 2019 (N = 638) and 2021 (N = 2,058). Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that many in both samples had coherent Leave or Remain identities. Remain and, to a lesser extent, Leave identities (regardless of how people actually voted in the referendum) predicted distress about Brexit‐related events and clinical symptoms of depression and anxiety at both time points. Structural equation models suggested that the effect of identities on symptoms was largely mediated by distress about Brexit‐related events. We demonstrate a lasting impact of Brexit on the mental health of UK citizens and show that the formation of novel political identities has been more important in this process than voting behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a lagging regional economy that underperforms the rest of the UK, Northern Ireland represents a number of continuing challenges that have a long history. In recent years, technologies and processes associated with Industry 4.0 have had little impact with a few exceptions. Yet these activities have become central to industrial policy and strategies in the last two decades, in spite of the path-dependent nature of the economy. The underperformance is exacerbated by Brexit and increased hybridity of the economy due to the Northern Ireland Protocol that appears to be a form of industrial policy to be analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mercosur and EU countries have a trade affinity due to similarities in consumer preferences (cultural and religious values and common consumption habits) and the existing complementarity in production (distinct climate, North–South hemisphere, and different degrees of added value goods). In this context, this paper evaluates the impact of the EU-Mercosur agreement on the Brazilian economy in terms of gross domestic output, trade, and welfare based on a computable general equilibrium model. To achieve this objective, the method includes two agreement scenario simulations: the first scenario considers the Mercosur-EU agreement including the UK as part of the bloc; in the second scenario, it considers the Mercosur-EU agreement with Brexit. In this way, the scenarios make it possible to analyze not only the gains in trade creation with the formation of the Mercosur-EU agreement but also to identify the effects of trade diversion due to the exit of the UK (BREXIT). For both scenarios, the results point out evidence of the positive effects on trade and the welfare level in Brazil, mainly on manufactured goods and agriculture—grains and crops. The main findings suggest that Mercosur benefits Brazilian trade, making it a strategic partner. Conversely, the paper concludes that Brexit could reduce the Brazilian trade gains from the EU-Mercosur agreement. Comparing the two scenarios, it is possible to observe that the Mercosur-EU gains in the Brexit scenario are smaller than in the alternative scenario. This aspect confirms the hypothesis that there is a negative effect on the Mercosur-EU agreement when Brexit is simulated (scenario 2). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introductory paper, reflecting the Thematic Cluster of four papers, brings together two themes that are important for migration studies: return migration and embedding. Beyond any simplistic assumptions of settlement and permanent integration back into the origin country, following return, or notions of ongoing unfettered mobility back and forth over time, this article knits together data from the cluster papers, focusing on Lithuania and Poland, to explore factors that lead to return, or indeed non-return, and subsequent experiences in the 'home' country for those who do return. Moreover, using mixed methods, including longitudinal research, we advance a theoretical framework facilitating an examination of how returnees negotiate their lives in the origin society and whether they intend to stay, or migrate again, through the conceptual lens of embedding. While emphasising agency and effort, embedding also recognises structural constraints that may impede migrants' expectations and aspirations. Hence, return migration may involve parallel processes of re-embedding but also experiences of dis-embedding as the hoped for return project encounters unexpected obstacles and may result in further migration. In mapping the field of return migration, through the concept of embedding, we focus on the impact of Brexit as 'an unsettling event'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]