Former diplopmat Ameer Kotecha – ‘Brexit has given Britain the tools it asked for’
Brexit has had important benefits: on legal immigration to the UK, Brexit’s great advantage has been giving us greater control and flexibility. It enabled us to introduce a points-based system that we can use to prioritise skills shortages that meet our labour market needs and be more choosy about the salary thresholds that people who come here must meet. Withdrawal from the shared EU asylum regime also gives us more control over who we choose to take in. The fact that successive governments have failed to get tough on the small boats is not a consequence of Brexit, it is a consequence of political cowardice and ineptitude.
But the point is this: immigration – legal and illegal – has long been far higher than the British people want. And after the vote to leave it rose still higher. But none of this was an inevitable result of Brexit. As the Migration Observatory at Oxford University put it, "The UK took back control but chose not to exercise it.” The task now is for our political leaders to seize the gauntlet, and wield the powers that Brexit has granted them, to deliver the things the British public keep asking of them.
And make no mistake: Brexit was meant to reduce immigration, and we must continue to honour the spirit of the vote to leave. The end of free movement was intended to cut inflows from the EU. Yes there was to be a somewhat more liberal regime for non-EU workers – with the ability to pick the best talent around the world. But overall numbers were meant to come down. That is what the British people voted for.
Why then did net migration rise sharply, reaching record levels post-Brexit? According to UK in a Changing Europe, by the end of 2024, non-EU employment in the UK had reached about 225 per cent of its 2016 level.
We rightly stepped up to take in Ukrainians and Hong Kongers in the face of war and oppression. But the truth is, there was no need for the Tories to have liberalised work and study visa regimes for the rest of the world to the extent they did, and they woefully underestimated how many migrants would take up the chance to legally come here. Yes certain sectors such as the NHS and adult social care had vacancies to fill. Covid also had a big impact. But ultimately Brexit provided an opportunity for us to invest in our domestic workforce that we failed to take.
Brexit has given Britain the tools it asked for to build a system of border control that is both fairer and better serves Britian’s interests. We are certainly still learning how to use those tools to best effect, but Brexit enabled us to have them – and that is a gift we should cherish.
Journalist Marie Le Conte – ‘Even those who voted Leave have been left displeased’
Has Brexit actually helped Britain 'take back control of its borders'? Trick question. "Control" was only ever a dog-whistle aimed at people who were strongly against immigration. We know this because pro-Brexit campaigners argued that agency was the only thing they cared about. Then they screamed and wept at the wave of immigration that took place after Boris Johnson altered the rules.
The changes were made in Britain, by a democratically elected British government. Still, they led to many foreigners moving to the country, something that was apparently so unacceptable that, we are now told, something ought to be done.
On a separate but related note, it is worth pointing out that the number of refugees and asylum seekers who reached Britain by boat went up massively in the years following Brexit coming into effect. While many of those people would have once been returned to the continent, thanks to the EU's Dublin Regulation, the UK must now deal with its own arrivals alone. Predictably, this has led to endless headlines about the "small boats crisis", and absurd and cruel ideas aimed at making Britain seem unassailable.
What all this shows is that Britain ought to have been careful what it wished for. Though it is now technically more in control of its borders than it had been as an EU member, and net migration numbers have fallen significantly over the past couple of years, those who advocated for that control remain unsatisfied – often vocally so.
The referendum pretended to answer one question while actually addressing another one and, consequently, managed not to please anyone.
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