The Brexit Carousel

A decade after “taking back control”, Britain is instead defined by how often it replaces its PMs 

Italy is pouring a Negroni and slow-clapping, Benvenuto al club, britannici. Set to welcome a seventh PM in a decade, Britain’s become a legit member of the revolving-door club, where govts change oftener than curtains. Thing is, while the head start is all Italy’s, Britain’s now taken a full-on lead. Yes, Meloni’s govt is Italy’s 68th since WWII. But with Keir Starmer resigning, she will now be seeing off her third British PM!

The real chef’s kiss detail is that the resignation comes almost exactly 10 years to the day since the Brexit referendum, which was supposed to end Britain’s instability, and restore it to former glory. The Leave campaign’s slogan, remember, was “Take Back Control”. But the only thing the country’s really taken control over since then, is how frequently it changes PMs. The one comfort’s that Starmer’s 717 days aren’t crappier than Liz Truss’s 49.

Meanwhile, for most Britons, the 2020s are managing to be even worse than the 2010s. At least then, there was some optimism that Brexit would rescue everybody. That hope’s gone poof. One poll finds that 57% of Britons believe UK was wrong to vote to leave EU, another that only 11% think this made their daily life better. The continuous churn of PMs reflects a wider nihilism, that the country’s fundamentally broken, NHS waiting lists will keep getting longer, and everyday problems keep getting worse. Another discarded PM can mean a fresh start, a reset. But equally, a further lurching rightwards.

Andy Burnham, the PM-in-waiting, is promising “change”. But so did Starmer. That’s how he got Labour into govt with a thumping majority. After the country had worked its way through five Conservative PMs – David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Truss, Rishi Sunak. But he blew up a lot of that political capital by embracing the Epstein-tainted Mandelson. What is strange to outsiders today is how Burnham and Starmer don’t look all that different. They appear to be adjacent versions of the same factory setting: middle-aged Labour men, lawyerly, managerial. Except one got polished at Cambridge, and the other at Oxford. Likely Burnham will strain against Trump and Nigel Farage as Starmer did. In the years since the Brexit vote, Britain has struggled with a low-growth economy, high debts, growing welfare bill, everything worsened by geopolitical volatility. This time it’s Burnham promising that sunlit uplands are just around the corner. Likely an eighth PM will also enter the stage with the same brochure. As The Who sang, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”

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