Big Brexit Bang

On June 23rd in 2016, 17,410,742 British people, 51.9% of voters, chose that Britain should leave the European Union. There were just too many problems with it that were getting rather out of hand. The only democratically elected part of the European government, the European Parliament, had about as much power as the House of Lords! On top of this, the European Union had destroyed many once-great British industries such as fishing and it was perceived as allowing too many migrants into the UK and thus taking jobs from the British working class.

Welsh and English rural working class voters were perceived as having pulled the entire United Kingdom out of the EU, often against the will of the people in certain areas. 53.4% of English voters and 52.5% of Welsh voters chose to leave the EU. A comfortable majority of Scottish voters, 62% of them, voted to remain in the EU, as did 55.8% of Northern Irish voters.

In the aftermath of the vote, Nicola Sturgeon, first minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party, is very disappointed with the results, which her part the UK voted so heavily against. Sturgeon hosted a meeting of the Scottish cabinet at her official residence, Bute House. She then gave a speech in which she declared that a referendum on Scotland's independence, now for the second time is "highly likely". She then said the following in a BBC interview, "The issue you are talking about is would there have to be a legislative consent motion or motions for the legislation that extricates the UK from the European Union? Looking at it from a logical perspective, I find it hard to believe that there wouldn't be that requirement - I suspect that the UK government will take a very different view on that and we'll have to see where that discussion ends up". When asked whether she would "consider asking the Scottish parliament not to back such a motion of legislative consent", Sturgeon immediately replied "of course". Now Sturgeon is threatening a Scottish veto on brexit and the possibility of Scottish secession from the United Kingdom.

The day after the referendum, British Prime Minister David Cameron, who had been campaigning exceedingly hard for the remain camp, announced that he would be stepping down from power at the Conservative Party conference in October, 2016. Speaking rather poetically, Cameron said "I will do everything I can as Prime Minister to steady the ship over the coming weeks and months but I do not think it would be right for me to try to be the captain that steers our country to its next destination". Now six prominent conservatives are jostling for their leadership of their party and therefore, their country. The front runner for these positions is Home Secretary Theresa May. May is already of high rank in the government and is the most likely of all the candidates to win the position. The primary brexiteer, former London Mayor Boris Johnson was expected to run, backed by Michael Gove. the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice. In a move that surprised many people, Gove instead announced that he would be running and that "Boris cannot provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead". Boris has now announced that he is backing Minister of State for Energy Andrea Leadsom, as she possesses "the zap, the drive, and the determination” that is required for the job. Gove was previously considered the likely primary alternative to Theresa May, as one of the main brexiteers (May was a remainer). Now however, that position has arguably fallen to Leadsom with the fresh energy of Boris' backing now behind her campaign. Another candidate was Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Stephen Crabb. His Welsh working class background could potentially help the Tories increase their ever-deepening penetration into traditional Labour strongholds. MP Liam Fox also announced his candidacy for the job. However, Fox had one big problem, in October, 2011, he resigned from his position as Secretary of State for Defence after a scandal involving his highly controversial relationship with lobbyist Adam Werritty.

On the 7th of July, Conservative Party MPs participated in the first of several rounds of voting for the next leader of their party. Liam Fox had the least votes with just MPs supporting him. He is therefore now out of the race. Stephen Crabb came second last with a mere 34 votes and has now bowed out of the race of his own accord. Michael Gove, the man previously expected to be Theresa May's primary competition has now fallen into 3rd place with 48 votes and has announced that he will be staying in the race to ensure that the winner is a brexiteer. However, Gove is not the only Eurosceptic still in the race, in second place came Andrea Leadsom, though arguably not as prominent a brexiteer as Gove, she appeared at debates alongside Boris Johnson fighting for the leave camp. She won the votes of 66 of her fellow Tory MPs. Finally with a huge majority of the votes, 165 of the 329 which were cast, came the party favourite Theresa May.

On the other side of parliament, on the 28th of June after multiple resignations from the Labour shadow cabinet, Labour MPs voted 170-40 in favour of booting their leader, Jeremy Corbyn in a motion of no confidence. This motion is not legally binding and Mr Corbyn has declined to accept it, insisting that he still has enough grassroots support to stay on as leader. Ex-Shadow First Secretary of State and ex-Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Angela Eagle (who was one of the many who resigned, resigning from both of her positions,) is seen as Corbyn's primary opposition. Corbyn's shadow cabinet has agreed to negotiate. Corbyn and his deputy, Tom Watson met with Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite, Britain's largest trade union in what was perceived by many speculative and hopeful Corbyn supporters to be the first step towards a peaceful exit of Mr Corbyn from leadership of Labour.

Nigel Farage has resigned as UKIP leader, after achieving what he believed to be the party's primary political function and goal, Britain leaving the EU. In his resignation speech and on twitter, Farage stated that “During the referendum I said I wanted my country back … now I want my life back.”