{"id":93469,"date":"2025-05-11T19:27:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-11T19:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/93469\/"},"modified":"2025-05-11T19:27:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-11T19:27:11","slug":"brexit-from-sand-eels-to-sarah-pochin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/93469\/","title":{"rendered":"Brexit: From sand eels to Sarah Pochin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Between May 2 and May 9 2025, the UK’s Remainers and Rejoiners were handed five “terrible” set-backs.<\/p>\n

In just seven days, events came to pass both inside and outside Brexit Britain which some may see as a total vindication of leaving the clutches of Brussels – spearheaded, of course, by Nigel Farage.<\/p>\n

Now, GB News has looked into all five so-called “set-backs” – and how Brexit played a role in how they came to pass.<\/p>\n

May 2 – Reform UK’s local election surge<\/p>\n

\"\\u200bSarah<\/p>\n

Sarah Pochin stole headlines on the morning of May 2 as Reform surged in the locals<\/p>\n

PA<\/p>\n

As polls closed on Thursday, May 1, Nigel Farage counselled calm<\/a>. “Thank you for voting Reform,” he said. “We have fought a strong campaign. The two major parties are more fearful of the results tonight than we are.”<\/p>\n

A few hours later, dawn had broken across England. His party was surging as council results flooded in, had won two mayoral contests, and had returned a new MP, Sarah Pochin, to the Commons.<\/p>\n

By the end of May 2, Reform had gained nearly 700 councillors – and now controlled 10 councils.<\/p>\n

In wards where over 65 per cent of voters elected to leave the EU in 2016, Reform won as much as 45 per cent of the vote on average.<\/p>\n

And as polling guru Sir John Curtice highlighted, Brexit – still a major fault line in UK politics – was invoked by its principal cheerleader Farage to electoral triumph.<\/p>\n

Reform’s own policy platform, “Our Contract With You”, starts with the words: “Britain has so much potential. Our country is full of talent and energy. Brexit is the opportunity of a lifetime.”<\/p>\n

The result? A 31 per cent vote share across the locals – a standalone first-placed finish, and a vote of confidence from Brexit-backing Britons.<\/p>\n

May 2 – Sand eel ban VICTORY<\/p>\n

\"Puffin<\/p>\n

Sand eels are crucial to the survival of British puffins<\/p>\n

PA<\/p>\n

On the same day as Reform’s locals breakthrough, a challenge to Britain’s ban on EU fishing for sand eels in the North Sea<\/a> was dismissed by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.<\/p>\n

The UK had slapped bans on continental trawlers in English and Scottish waters in early 2024 to prohibit them netting the tiny fish – crucial to Britain’s marine life including seabirds like puffins.<\/p>\n

EU bigwigs had claimed the move was “discriminatory and disproportionate”, breached a post-Brexit trade deal, and could threaten the future of commercial sandeel fishing in Denmark.<\/p>\n

But it was thrown out in The Hague.<\/p>\n

The “great sand eel massacre, planned by the Danes and the Dutch”, as one Reform insider called it, had finally come to an end.<\/p>\n

May 6 – Global trade breakthrough<\/p>\n

\"UK-India<\/p>\n

On May 6, Britain and India signed off on a landmark deal<\/p>\n

DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS & TRADE<\/p>\n

On May 6, Britain and India signed off on a landmark trade deal<\/a> – which will add an estimated \u00a34.8billion a year to the UK economy by 2040.<\/p>\n

Concerns remain over the National Insurance exemption for Indian workers in the UK – led by Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick – but scores of high-profile Brexit-backing Tories have come out to bat for the Labour-sealed deal. <\/p>\n

Ex-Deputy PM Oliver Dowden said it “builds on significant progress made by [the] previous Conservative Government”.<\/p>\n

Former Business Secretary Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg said it would bring “cheaper food and drink including rice and tea, footwear and clothing”. <\/p>\n

“Exactly what Brexit promised,” he added.<\/p>\n

And former Brexit Minister Steve Baker said: “This deal is great news. It further cements the path which I and others worked so hard to secure.<\/p>\n

“The tax issue will likely turn out to be a red herring. We should be celebrating that a Labour Government has furthered free trade in the national interest outside the EU.”<\/p>\n

May 6 – Rejoiners slapped down by LABOUR as referendum petition goes nowhere<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

On the same day, a petition to have Britain U-turn on the will of the people in 2016 and rejoin the EU came to a quiet close.<\/p>\n

“I want the Government to hold a referendum on whether the UK should rejoin the European Union,” the petition – which opened on April 22 – said.<\/p>\n

Two weeks after it was launched, the drive to rejoin had garnered only 16,594 signatures – more than 80,000 below the threshold required to prompt a parliamentary debate.<\/p>\n

And in a crushing blow for Brexit-hating voters, it received a dismissive response from Labour – though one which teased its “relations reset” with Brussels.<\/p>\n

“The Government was elected on a manifesto that made clear the UK would not rejoin the EU. <\/p>\n

“We are focused on a strategic alliance with the EU to make the UK safer, more secure and more prosperous.”<\/p>\n

May 9 – Donald Trump FINALLY puts Britain at the front of the queue<\/p>\n

\"Trump<\/p>\n

Sir Keir Starmer and Donald Trump held a press conference from two ends of a phone line<\/p>\n

GETTY<\/p>\n

On Friday, May 9, Sir Keir Starmer and Donald Trump held a press conference from two ends of a phone line – one in the West Midlands, and the other in Washington.<\/p>\n

The two leaders announced a breakthrough had been reached on a crucial UK-US tariff reduction deal. Britain, expressly thanks to Brexit, as Trump said<\/a>, deserved a levy let-off before any other country.<\/p>\n

“The European Union treated us extremely unfairly… and hurt themselves in doing so,” Trump blasted.<\/p>\n

“They very much want to make a deal. We\u2019ll be dealing with them. We are dealing with them currently,” he said.<\/p>\n

In the aftermath, Remainers scrambled to claim that Britain’s independence was of no relevance to the deal.<\/p>\n

But the President issued a direct rebuke to his predecessor in office Barack Obama, who had fumed that Brexit Britain would be “back of the queue” for trade deals with the US.<\/p>\n

“This was separate because of Brexit in particular,” Trump said on Friday.<\/p>\n

“It always seemed so natural.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Between May 2 and May 9 2025, the UK’s Remainers and Rejoiners were handed five “terrible” set-backs. In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,8274,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-93469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-membership","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114490851295205777","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}