Lecture | CHEI Seminar
Imagining the future of UK-Europe relations: Narratives from Brexit Britain
- Mark Kaye (University of Portsmouth)
- Date
- Wednesday 7 May 2025
- Time
- Serie
- Centre for the History of European Integration Seminar Series
- Address
-
Johan Huizinga
Doelensteeg 16
2311 VL Leiden - Room
- Conference room (2.60)
Synopsis
This paper explores the variegated ways in which citizens from across the Brexit divide imagine the United Kingdom’s (UK) future relationship with the European Union (EU), and more broadly, their visions for the UK’s role within a changing European and global geopolitical context. The new Labour Government has repeatedly promised to ‘reset’ the UK’s relationship with the EU. However, opinion polls show that the UK public continues to be divided on exactly what form a closer relationship with the EU should take. Thematic and narrative analysis of data collected through guided interviews, conducted with forty-one individuals between December 2023 and November 2024, reveals that voters are increasingly (re-)considering their policy preferences towards the EU. The ongoing wars in the Ukraine and the Middle East, the election of Donald Trump in the United States, the UK’s slow economic growth and a perceived global migration crisis significantly frame how voters are imagining the future of the UK in Europe. At the same time, pre-Brexit era narratives persist, with many voters continuing to hold a Churchillian view of the UK’s international and European responsibilities, and a sense that irrespective of Brexit, the UK will continue to be an ‘awkward partner’ to Europe.
About the presenter
Mark Anthony Kaye is a third year PhD candidate (European & Area Studies) at the University of Portsmouth. He originally studied History (BA) at the University of Leeds, including a year at Leiden University under the Erasmus scheme, before undertaking a MA in Contemporary History at the University of Birmingham. He also holds an MSc in Social Research Methods from the University of Southampton. With a background in contemporary British and European politics and history, his PhD research focuses on the cultural, social and political impact of Brexit and how citizens in the United Kingdom imagine their post-Brexit future(s). Funded by the South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership (SCDTP), Mark also works as the Media Coordinator at the Centre for European and International Studies Research (CEISR).
Centre for the History of European Integration (CHEI)
The seminars of Centre for the History of European Integration (CHEI) bring together scholars working on European integration, broadly conceived, from a historical perspective. Those interested in the work of the CHEI and in participating in the Centre’s activities are very welcome to contact Matthew Broad, the Coordinator of the CHEI, for more details.