Why Britons chose Brexit

We explain the lead-up to, and possible consequences of, Britain's vote to leave the EU

The British pound has been hit by the Brexit vote. Phil Noble / Reuters

The United Kingdom and Europe have always had an uneasy relationship. Centuries of war probably didn’t help, but Britons have long had a sense that Europe was “over there”, across the Channel, somewhere other than their country.

Joining the European Union’s predecessor organisation in 1973 did not help matters, nor did a referendum in 1975 on staying in. Particularly among the centre-right Conservative party, there were always suspicions about being in such a union. Questions of sovereignty were often invoked. To those true believers, being part of the EU meant giving up power to faceless politicians in Brussels.

Around the turn of the century, the EU entered a new phase. In 2004, 10 new countries joined the EU, the largest expansion of the union. This really set the stage for the current political crisis.

Most of the new countries that joined, particularly those with larger populations such as Poland and the Czech Republic, were considerably poorer than the richer EU countries like Germany, France and the UK. As such, there was a large movement of people in search of jobs, a movement that changed many towns and cities around the EU.

In the UK, foreign workers and shops suddenly became an established part of the landscape. The new arrivals caused a certain amount of resentment. A general lack of investment by successive governments in schools and housing became very apparent. After the global recession hit in 2008, these issues became more acute.

Anti-EU voices, always loud, became louder two years later, when the Conservatives won power. David Cameron, the prime minister, went into the 2015 election promising a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU if he won – which, unexpectedly, he did.

The referendum was held in June – and Mr Cameron lost.

Now the drawn-out process of unravelling decades-old trade agreements and leaving Europe has caused the British pound to weaken significantly – good news, at least, for expatriates seeking to remit money back home – amid fears of a “hard” exit from the EU. Prices for consumer goods and petrol have also begun to creep up in the UK, so too has anger that had barely subsided since the vote.

Sterling has fallen sharply against the dollar in the past week and will tumble further as a combination of reality biting over exit talks and, indeed, the finality of the process being undertaken, buyer’s remorse among British voters and a general negative sentiment envelops Britain and its investors.