Brexit: Finally, Britain moves out of European Union

Virendra Pandit 

New Delhi:  On the day Prime Minister Boris Johnson celebrated Britain’s exit (Brexit) from the European Union, his father, Stanley, applied for French citizenship to mark his protest to what many believe a historical mistake of the United Kingdom.

Britain is the first member state to leave the EU, which was formed in 1993 to forge unity among the European nations.

Stanley Johnson, who did not want Britain to leave the EU, said he applied for French citizenship, just as the UK finally ended its ties with the European Union, media reported on Friday.

Johnson Sr., who is also a member of the ruling Conservative Party, of which his son is the current leader, had voted for the UK to remain in the EU in the 2016 Brexit referendum.

Boris, on the other hand, led the pro-Brexit ‘Leave’ campaign, consolidated hold over the party, eventually becoming Prime Minister in 2019.

For centuries, the UK has refrained from calling itself ‘European’ as it looked down upon the ‘Continent’. It fought several wars against European countries until 1945 and later became part of the EU in 1973. But there always remained a strong anti-European lobby in London.

On New Year’s Eve, the UK officially departed from the EU single market and customs union as its post-Brexit deal with the bloc came into force.

Stanley, 80, has had roots in France. He speaks fluent French, his mother was born in France and his grandmother was also French.

The British PM’s father was among the first civil servants from the UK to work for the EU after London joined the bloc. He also served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) between 1979 and 1984 from the Conservative Party, and later worked for the European Commission.

“I will always be European, that’s for sure,” Johnson said.

Not only Stanley, Jo Johnson, who is Boris’s brother and a Conservative Party MP, left a cabinet position in 2018 to support for stronger ties with the EU. His sister Rachel Johnson, a journalist, left the Conservative Party in 2017 in protest against Brexit and joined the Liberal Democrats Party, which is currently the fourth largest political group in the British parliament. She also wants to be a French citizen, she added.

That shows the uneasiness of many in the UK over quitting the EU.

Although the UK has entered into a post-Brexit deal with the EU, most Britons will lose their automatic right to work and travel in 27 countries of Europe, starting in 2021. More than 3.5 lakh Britons applied to become dual nationals of another EU state as of January 2020, so as to acquire EU citizenship.

But Boris was happy at Brexit. He described it as an “amazing moment” for the country and played up his upbeat narrative of a “Global Britain” unshackled from rules set in Brussels, the headquarters of EU.

Post-Brexit Britain would be an “open, generous, outward-looking, internationalist and free-trading” country. “We have our freedom in our hands and it is up to us to make the most of it.”

Legally, Britain left the EU on January 31, 2020, but has been in a standstill transition period during fractious talks to secure a free-trade agreement with Brussels, which was finally clinched on Christmas Eve.

Now the transition is over, EU rules no longer apply. The immediate consequence is an end to the free movement of more than 500 million people between Britain and the 27 EU states.

Customs border checks will now return for the first time since 1973. Britain will continue to have access to Europe’s nearly 450 million consumers.

For now, however, both the EU and the UK have embarked upon an uncertain future as several potential disruptions at ports, ease of doing business, delays, shortages, and increased paperwork are expected.

Many are expected to apply for dual citizenship—the more they do, the more will Brexit become meaningless.

But the UK itself may come unstuck as anger swells at the Brexit decision.

In pro-EU Scotland, where Brexit has triggered calls for a new vote on independence from the UK, Johnson may face new headaches.

Scotland’s pro-EU First Minister Nicola Sturgeon promised in a tweet: “Scotland will be back soon, Europe. Keep the light on.”

But some Britons want to move on. They are far more worried about the worsening COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed 73,500 lives.

For now, the EU has lost 66 million people and an economy worth $2.85 trillion.