Brexit, 10 years on: Parliament and the democratic crisis

This month marks the tenth anniversary of the Brexit referendum – a vote that unleashed four years of extraordinary political turmoil. Judges were branded "enemies of the people", MPs denounced as "saboteurs", political parties fractured, and Prime Ministers rose and fell amid relentless parliamentary drama.

Historian Dr Robert Saunders of Queen Mary University of London has written a new paper arguing that Brexit was more than a bitter political dispute: it amounted to a full-blown democratic crisis.

In this episode, Robert joins Ruth and Mark to explore why Britain’s political system struggled to interpret and implement the referendum instruction, and why Parliament and the major parties appear to have learned so little from the experience.

The conversation then turns to current events. In the wake of the horrific attacks in Southampton and Belfast, they ask whether the same political and social forces that fuelled the Brexit revolt are now at play over immigration. 

Robert last appeared on the podcast at Christmas to discuss why the job of Prime Minister increasingly looks impossible. With Sir Keir Starmer now facing fresh turmoil following the resignation of the Defence Secretary, John Healey, the discussion returns to that theme: could this latest setback prove fatal to Starmer’s premiership, or might he survive as a “Zombie Prime Minister”, still in office but with his authority destroyed?  

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Parliament Matters is a Hansard Society production supported by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.

Presenters: Mark D’Arcy and Ruth Fox

Producer: Richard Townsend

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