ABSTRACT
The impact of the Brexit referendum on Britain’s politics was as dramatic as its result was unexpected. The outcome of the election was anything but certainty – a ‘hung’ parliament that paralysed government and left the question of whether the United Kingdom (UK) would leave the European Union (EU) open for two more years. The transformation of Labour and Conservative support after 2016 was another consequence of the gradual changes in the priorities of British voters – and their connections to their political parties – that started 40 years earlier and were accelerated by the ‘electoral shock’ of Brexit. The Conservatives maintained their explicitly pro-Brexit stance in both the 2017 and 2019 elections, as well as promoting sceptical views of immigration and tougher approaches on law and order, as they set out to win over the ‘more nationalistic, communitarian and inward-looking’ sections of the electorate who overwhelmingly endorsed Brexit.
