Kenneth Glad
Old political choices can keep shaping daily routines long after voters leave the polling booth. The effects now show up in trade, hiring and the choices facing a younger generation.
Nearly ten years after the 2016 referendum, Brexit remains politically alive in Britain, even as the European Union has shifted much of its attention elsewhere.
YouGov polling conducted on 2 and 3 June 2026 found that 57% of Britons said the UK was wrong to vote to leave the EU, while 30% said it was right. The same polling found that 23% of Leave voters now believe the decision was wrong.
In interviews with Danish broadcaster TV 2, Peter Wood, an eel farmer from Gloucester who voted Leave, said he now believes Brexit failed people like him.
“It was a crazy idea,” he said.
Wood said he had expected the vote to protect his company and sector. Instead, he told TV 2: “It has actually ruined the country. We have no growth.”
Overnight trade is no longer simple
Richard Cook, owner of Gloucester-based salmon exporter Severn and Wye, told the Danish broadcaster that shipments to France once moved with far less friction.
“We could export fish at 6 or 7pm, and it would be in Boulogne-sur-Mer the next morning at 5am. Now there is far more paperwork, and we cannot have small customers,” he said.
For a fresh-food business, that change affects which orders are viable. Extra forms, delays and smaller margins can push modest customers out of reach.
Cook also said recruitment has suffered since Britain left the EU’s free movement system:
“It is cold and wet. The hours are odd, the work is hard. And when you go home, you smell of fish. There are more appealing careers and industries here in Britain than ours.”
Students have fewer easy routes
The consequences also reach younger generations. The Guardian writes that Britain is no longer the obvious destination it once was for many young Europeans seeking work, study or a creative career.
EU student enrolment in UK higher education fell 58% in 2023-24 compared with the last year before free movement ended.
EU citizens now account for only 5% of people receiving UK visas through the post-Brexit system, according to the paper.
Talks on easier youth mobility have remained difficult. For young Britons and Europeans, the old route across borders for a course, job or first adult move now comes with more conditions.
Jesper Steinmetz, TV 2’s London-based Europe correspondent, said many Britons now feel the result has delivered the opposite of what they expected.
“They are resigned and hopeless. They have simply got the opposite of what they wanted,” he said.
Brexit still shapes British politics
Jannike Wachowiak, a policy analyst who follows UK-EU relations, told The Guardian: “European leaders simply don’t spend much time thinking about relations with the UK.”
Britain and the EU still cooperate on security, Ukraine and diplomacy, and trade remains important on both sides. But Brexit takes up more political space in Britain than it does in Brussels.
For the EU, Britain’s departure has become one issue among many. For Britain, it remains tied to prices, workers, borders, growth and national direction.
That is why the debate has not disappeared. The question now is whether Britain can rebuild closer links with Europe without reopening the full battle over membership.
Sources: The Guardian, TV 2, YouGov
