Sam Lister demands a proper Brexit (Image: PA)
In the early hours of a bright June morning 10 years ago I walked along the River Thames in a dazed state as I realised everything had changed. I had been dispatched to cover the Stronger In campaign’s referendum results event on the Southbank and most of Westminster expected it to be the victory party. When I had arrived the previous evening, spirits were high, with politicians, campaigners and journalists mingling while the coverage was played on a big screen. There were cameras from all of the major stations at one end of the room ready to film live reactions from guests as the results came in. But once they did begin to roll in, the mood quickly turned sour as the gathering realised they were on course to lose.
Tempers flared in the early hours as Labour’s heartlands voted to Leave. I watched as one of the party’s senior MPs, Chris Bryant, called Ed Miliband a “t***pot” when he popped up on giant TV to ruminate on the results so far. Bryant went on to suggest he wanted to punch the former leader, who had been replaced the year before by Jeremy Corbyn, for leaving the Labour party in such a bad state that it was unable to persuade its voters to support Remain. Before the full results were in, most of the politicians had skedaddled.
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Meanwhile, on the other side of the river Nigel Farage and his gang were celebrating a shock victory. After decades of campaigning for Britain to be freed from the shackles of Brussels bureaucracy, the country had agreed it was time for us to chart our own path.
But what happened next was an unprecedented insight into how the liberal ruling class reacts when ordinary people reject its world view.
What do you do if you don’t like the way the masses have voted? Tell them they got it wrong and try to rerun the poll. The People’s Vote, a rag tag group of Lefty luvvies, Greens, Lib Dems and Labour figures, pushed for a second referendum.
In parliament, Remainers from across the parties bandied together to uncover the most arcane and obscure rules to force or block votes. The UK had a brilliant opportunity to forge a new future in a rapidly changing world, a mandate from the country to do just that.
Instead, obstructive civil servants and pompous politicians who believed they knew better than the people they are supposed to serve did everything in their power to delay, overturn and stymie every attempt to deliver on the vote to Leave.
As the sclerotic European Union stuttered on, its growth lagging behind the United States and China, Britain had the chance to become the buccaneering nation that was promised.
But the opportunity was squandered. Instead, Brexit was treated by many in Westminster as an admin task, something to be mitigated so everything to carry on pretty much as before.
Tory infighting meant the party whipped through prime ministers at an astonishing rate.
Boris Johnson’s turn coincided with Covid so, despite his historic achievement in finally getting Britain out of the bloc in the face of ferocious opposition that even ended up in the courts, the pandemic overtook everything and eventually led to his downfall.
But coulda, woulda, shoulda. The rights and wrongs of who did what must be left in the past now. Going over who is to blame for what can help us work out how to avoid repeating the same mistakes but we must start from where we are now.
Keir Starmer, the man who led Labour’s opposition in parliament at the height of the Brexit Wars, is in power and he is plotting to hitch us back up to Brussels.
Voters wanted lower immigration and proper control over Britain’s borders but instead have endured the polar opposite. Our economy continues to stagnate and our fishermen are still at the mercy of fishing rights that favour their European competitors.
The Daily Express was the first newspaper to campaign for Britain’s freedom. It was our much-missed late former political editor Patrick O’Flynn who realised there could be a brighter future for the country outside the EU.
He wanted our government to have all the powers it needed to give the people it works for the kind of country they want. We will campaign for that vision to be delivered as promised.
It is time to give us a proper Brexit.