Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data published in July 2022 showed that just 34% of people in the UK trusted the government. After two prime ministers and a subsequent worsening living-living crisis, public political skepticism is far from improving. In fact, it extends beyond its limits.
British citizens living in Europe feel they have had little or no representation since Britain left the European Union, according to a new survey by a research team from the University of Strathclyde.
Survey respondents told researchers that they no longer trusted the UK government to look after their needs or interests. It showed that 60.1% of respondents felt underrepresented, with 30% of respondents feeling not well represented. Additionally, 95.6% of respondents did not trust the UK government, while 62.3% trusted the European Union and 47.5% trusted the government of their current country of residence.
Designed and produced by the University’s Chair in International History, Professor Tanja Bueltman, the survey publicized the views of UK citizens on EU countries, Switzerland and the EEA (European Economic Area), which includes Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein.
It’s this lack of trust that is most frustrating to Bueltmann. “The survey shows that trust in the UK government has almost completely broken down. Respondents are also very concerned about the lack of representation and the level of disenfranchisement; there are questions that both the UK government and the EU face serious democratic shortcomings. must be addressed to prevent consolidation,” she said.
The findings showed evidence of not only Brexit’s failures, but also its backfiring. 70.2% of respondents agreed that Brexit had strengthened their European identity, with 82.6% answering that they saw themselves as European compared to 68.9% who saw themselves as British. 47% of Scottish respondents felt part of a wider global Scottish community while 14.2% of English respondents felt part of a global English community.
This comes from a survey conducted by Europe Street News in 2019 which found that 63% of respondents said they lacked information about their rights post-Brexit. In general, 59% felt a lack of information about their social security rights in the EU after Brexit and overall, 93% said they were more concerned about their prospects after leaving the EU.
So where does this leave us? The researchers recommended a UK-EU citizens’ stakeholder forum to debate issues of representation, including the early introduction of a “vote for life” for UK citizens abroad and changes to UK immigration rules to allow family return to the UK more easily.
But the time for debate has passed. There is a growing consensus, both in the UK and abroad, that Brexit is not working. In fact, this never happened.