Boris Johnson's embarrassing outburst shows why Brexiteers need to move on
To some arch-Brexiteers, even making it easier to bring your pet into the EU is an act of ‘betrayal’
We all know how difficult it is to let go of a hard-fought argument. Friends, foes, parents or partners – the temptation to come back for one more belatedly remembered point to put on the scoreboard or one more “I told you so” is often irresistible (and sometimes the source of a night spent sleeping on the sofa).
If that is true for a family squabble, then it has been orders of magnitude worse during the bitter national quarrel that was Brexit. For years, people fought over the EU referendum and its fallout; for years, those on the losing side of the debate were told to “move on” and accept the result for what it was.
That was then – now it is the turn of the Brexiteers. The rest of the country has moved on to new challenges, but the die-hards are still fighting the last war. Nowhere is that clearer to see than in the reheated talk of “surrender” and “betrayal of Brexit” this week, capped off by Boris Johnson’s unhinged attack on Keir Starmer as the “orange ball-chewing manacled gimp of Brussels”. Ah, Mr Johnson’s contributions to public discourse are much missed.
A bang-average deal
All this over the most middle-of-the-road UK-EU deal imaginable. Reduced friction on food trade; negotiating to have negotiations about a youth mobility scheme; cooperation on shared defence – these are welcome, pragmatic agreements to be sure (if you are a fan of pragmatic agreements) but hardly setting the world on fire.
The only way you can view this bang-average agreement as some Earth-shattering betrayal of Brexit is if you are still stuck in the Leave-Remain debate mindset that the rest of us gave up some time ago. When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail – and when all you can think about is Brexit, even making it easier to bring your pet into the EU looks like ‘betrayal’.
Back in the real world, rebuilding our trading and political relationships with Europe makes an enormous amount of sense, whichever way you voted in 2016. In the challenging world that we live in today, people know that we need more trade, more opportunity – and we need to work more with our liberal democratic allies in Europe, not less.
Better for the country
Neurotic screeds about ‘surrenderism’ and sovereignty might have been forgivable in the past but in the world of 2025 they are a relic of a best-forgotten era – a luxury that we can no longer afford.
Moving on from the arguments of Brexit is hard, but it is necessary. It is the only way we can finally get to where we need to be as a country.
We need to ask the right questions about where we take our politics. We cannot keep wondering “does this course defend the true Brexit?” Instead we should be asking “does it make our country stronger, wealthier and more secure?”
Most of the country has managed to move on – the last of the Brexiteers need to as well. If “accepting the result” of Brexit means anything, it surely means more than just sitting on our hands forever. We cannot keep our politics stuck in 2016, in one never-ending family feud. Brexit is done – now what?
William Deans is chief of staff to Alistair Carmichael MP, and holds an MSc in nationalism and ethnic conflict
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