A Promise Abandoned

The undoing of Brexit reveals the stasis at the heart of Western politics

“It is very easy to sign deals if you are prepared to give everything away for pennies”.

So said Kemi Badenoch in yesterday’s House of Commons debate on the recent UK-EU summit, during which Prime Minister Keir Starmer negotiated new agreements with the EU to effectively reintegrate Britain into the trade bloc. The headlines have been favorable: Great Britain’s struggle to reap the promised financial and legal rewards of Brexit since 2021 have haunted the Brexit movement’s legacy and the international reputation of the nation more broadly.

Apparent benefits of the new agreements include the provision for British travelers to rejoin shorter queues at airports, normally reserved for EU member states which have signed up to the Schengen agreement permitting free movement within the bloc, a recognizable improvement for Britons. But, as Badenoch pointed out, the victory is superficial: Some airports already allow British passengers to join these queues, and there is no official guarantee laid out in the EU-UK agreement to enact this change comprehensively.

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