The Telegraph, Sunday 18th May 2025
No phrase, however slick, can mask what this really is: a surrender of sovereignty dressed in the garb of diplomacy
The moment remains indelibly etched in my mind, as vivid now as it was then. Those early hours of June 24, 2016 – the afterglow of the referendum still clinging to the air like mist. In Fareham, our Vote Leave team were weary, elated, and yet braced for disappointment. Nigel Farage had already hinted at defeat as the polls closed. The machine, after all, was colossal: the Treasury, the Bank of England, Brussels, Barack Obama – all aligned, all seemingly convinced that Project Fear would prevail.
But we had stood for something more enduring than polls or punditry: for sovereignty, for the conviction that a people – any people – deserve to govern themselves. Yes, we were the underdogs but we fought for the notion that borders matter, that culture counts, that laws passed in London carry greater legitimacy than diktats from Strasbourg. We had made the case for Britain – and braced ourselves for noble defeat.
Then came Sunderland.
A cheer rose from outside the hall. We were told: 61 per cent Leave. Disbelief. A second, then a third confirmation. Could it be? The industrial North, battered and patronised for decades, had defied every expert, every threat, and roared with unambiguous pride: Leave.
There was something profoundly British about it. Not just in the scepticism of authority, but in the quiet dignity of millions who had had enough – enough of being sneered at, of being told their country was a relic, their instincts xenophobic. The people had chosen freedom. And Fareham, too, my own community had joined them, casting aside the narrative of inevitable Remain.
I remember driving back to the Vote Leave HQ at 4am as the first rays of a new dawn broke across the Hampshire skies. It wasn’t just meteorological. It was a moment of national rebirth.
And now – nine years on – what are we to make of it?
The Labour Government, fronted by Keir Starmer but puppeteered by a familiar Europhile chorus, appears poised to commit the most far-reaching Brexit betrayal yet. One must admire the brazenness. These are people who voted against Brexit, campaigned for a second referendum, and now, with the cloak of office draped over their shoulders, intend to smuggle Britain back into Europe’s orbit – quietly, incrementally, and with a lawyer’s precision.
First, the so-called Youth Mobility Scheme. Harmless sounding – who could object to young people travelling? But beneath the euphemism lies the quiet reintroduction of free movement. At a time when net migration is at historic highs, when the public is palpably crying out for control, Labour proposes to open the doors even wider.
Then there’s fishing. That sacred emblem of island sovereignty – a living, breathing industry left to rot under the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy. Our fishermen, such as those who fish for Bass in The Solent from my constituency, had waited patiently, for justice. Instead, up to 75 per cent of our waters continue to be plundered by EU vessels. And there is every sign that Starmer will sign away even that thin veneer of regained control.
Most gravely, we hear whispers – credible ones – of dynamic alignment: the dull phrase that masks a profound truth. That Britain would once again become a rule-taker, our regulations shaped not by Parliament but by Brussels. And with it, the European Court of Justice waiting in the wings to resume its supremacy.
All of it will be spun, of course. Clever soundbites: “e-gates for British travellers”, “restoring relationships”, “back at the table”. But no phrase, however slick, can mask what this is: a surrender of sovereignty dressed in the garb of diplomacy.
The real question is not what Starmer does now. It is how long he thinks the British people will tolerate it. For what 2016 revealed was not just a vote to leave the European Union – it was a vote of confidence in themselves. And once a people have tasted freedom, they do not forget. Nor do they forgive easily.
The British public may be patient. But they are not fools. And they do not take kindly to being betrayed.
Suella
